Friday, 30 October 2009
US Mideast envoy George Mitchell arrived in Israel Thursday for another round of talks, amid low expectations in Israel of progress and concern that the Palestinian Authority election campaign will make launching negotiations even more difficult than before.
Senior Israeli officials said that it was not clear whether Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was interested in negotiations at this time, believing that in the atmosphere created by the Goldstone Commission Report if he holds out and waits, then the US and the international community would pressure Israel.
"Abbas believes that by waiting he can improve his starting position," one official said, saying that the sides continue to wrangle over the terms of reference for the talks - what the aim of the negotiations will be, how long they will continue, and what issues will be discussed.
There is a school of thought in Jerusalem that maintains that Abbas's electoral position will improve the more he is seen as not giving in to Israeli and US dictates. He has called Palestinian presidential and legislative elections for January, but there is a sense in Jerusalem that these will not actually take place until the summer.
The US, after first calling for a total settlement freeze, has since backtracked a bit on that position and is now calling for the Palestinians to restart talks without any conditions.
Abbas has stood firm by his demand that Israel freeze building in all settlements, as well as in Jerusalem, before negotiations start.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has agreed to a temporary moratorium on new housing starts, but said this does not include Jerusalem and that some 3,000 units already in the pipeline will continue to be built.
Israeli government officials say that Israel has reached agreement on this issue with the Americans, but that the Palestinians have not given their consent.
Mitchell is holding talks here through Friday; he will then go to other countries in the region on Saturday, and return for follow-up talks on Sunday.
US officials would not divulge where he planned to go, although there were reports that he would join US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton Saturday for talks with Abbas in Abu Dhabi.
Clinton is expected to arrive in Israel for talks on Saturday night. State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly rejected the notion that Clinton was being dispatched to play backstop for a faltering Mitchell.
"It's absolutely no reflection on Senator Mitchell and the amount of effort that he's put into this. He's done an outstanding job, tireless efforts to try and bring the two sides together," Kelly stressed.
"We knew going in that this was going to be challenging and would require a real deep commitment to intensive negotiations. And that's exactly what we're involved in right now," he said.
