Building for Jews continues in eastern Gush E
Building for Jews continues in eastern Gush EIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, speaking Sunday as if he had never met with American and Israeli leaders in the White House last week, conditioned more direct talks with Israel on an extension of the building freeze. 

His statement turned back the clock to pre-White House rhetoric that had precluded face-to-face discussions with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu until last week. Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu, after individual meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama in a day of carefully choreographed discussions last Thursday, spoke with each other for over two hours behind closed doors and gave President Obama the opportunity to say he brought them together.

U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said they even agreed to meet next week for a fresh round of talks, but Abbas said on a visit to Libya Saturday night, “If the freeze period is not extended by the end of the month, there will be no negotiations."

He was referring to the freeze on construction for Jews in Judea and Samaria, a halt to building that Israel adopted last September as a concession for the PA to sit down at the same table with Israel over the proposal to create a new Arab country headed by the PA.

Abbas did not refer to his condition in the public statements in Washington but said on Saturday that he made his views known to Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Prime Minister, picking up the American government’s plea that both sides reach a final agreement within a year, told the Cabinet Sunday morning, "We will have to learn the lessons of 17 years of experience from negotiations and to think creatively -- what's called 'outside the box.’ In order to achieve practical solutions, we'll have to think of new solutions to old problems. I believe this is possible." 

Abbas' statement appeared to pour cold water on Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s declaration on Army Radio Sunday morning that "a way was being sought so that [ending the building freeze]) would not harm the continuation of talks."

Doubts for success in the talks have been expressed even by the left-wing camp in Israel. Yossi Beilin, former Meretz party leader and the man behind the Geneva Initiative that would satisfy almost all PA demands, wrote on the Bloomberg News website last week that he admits that the PA must settle for a partial success if the talks are to succeed. However, he added he sees no chances for a positive result.

Beilin warned that a failure in the negotiations “will lead to more frustration and deeper skepticism that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be resolved. The security arrangement between the two sides, which is guaranteeing the current state of calm, will be dealt a blow and there will be a danger of violent outbursts.”

He admitted that “the distance between his [Netanyahu’s] positions and the minimum claims of the pragmatic Palestinian camp can’t be bridged…. Abbas can’t implement a peace agreement with Israel because as long as Hamas retains control of Gaza, Gaza won’t be part of the solution, and there can’t be any ‘safe passage’ between the West Bank and Gaza.”