U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell continued his shuttle diplomacy mission between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Sunday, meeting once more with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu before heading back to Washington, D.C. It will be the second time the two men have talked since Friday and follows a day of talks with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and other PA officials.
The American negotiator was back in Jerusalem Saturday night, meeting with Yitzchak Molcho, chief negotiator for Israel, and Michael Herzog, chief of staff for Defense Minister Ehud Barak, after spending 24 hours in Samaria. The U.S. envoy had followed up his meeting Friday morning with Netanyahu by traveling to Ramallah, where he met with Abbas, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat and other officials.
Mitchell told reporters at a joint news conference with Erekat following a two-hour meeting Friday night, "We discussed our common vision of a viable and independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are deeply committed to that."
Erekat implied in his statement that the PA was continuing to insist on preconditions before it would agree to resuming talks with Israel. The Jewish State, he said, should "first express clear commitment to implementing the Roadmap plan, which includes stopping settlement, and be commited to the two-state solution" before the PA would agree to resume talks. He also said Israeli and PA negotiators would most likely travel to Washington within the next two weeks.
Israel, however, has not made any commitment to freeze construction on public buildings such as synagogues, schools and health clinics in existing communities, nor anywhere in Jerusalem. Moreover, Netanyahu has not approved a freeze on the 2,500 housing units that are currently being built, nor has he reneged on his agreement to allow construction of 450 units that were approved a month ago.