Rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel this year. Photo taken July 2010
JERUSALEM, Sept. 28 – Israel wants a compromise that will allow peace talks with the Palestinians to stay on track and its negotiators are speaking with American and Arab officials to resolve the dispute over settlement building in the West Bank.
“The most important thing is direct negotiations on all the issues, from settlements to refugees, including Jerusalem and security,” Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor told The Israel Project. “Any attempt to turn this into a warm-up act only damages the main negotiations.”
Israel believes an outline peace deal could be brokered within the next 12 months — if the parties keep talking.
Let us proceed in accelerated, sincere and continuous talks in order to bring about an historic peace framework agreement within one year,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Sept. 26.
U.S. President Barack Obama shares that goal and told the United Nations General Assembly last week the Palestinians stood to gain much from such a deal.
“When we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations – an independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel,” Obama said.
Israel has kept talking to the Palestinians over the last six months, despite ongoing rocket and mortar attacks on citizens of southern Israel. More than 150 projectiles have landed this year, fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Palestinian terrorists, armed and financed by Iran, have launched thousands of rockets from Gaza since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Palestinian territory in 2005.
Since the direct talks began less than a month ago, Israeli civilians have also been shot, firebombed and stoned by Palestinians based in the West Bank[1].
“No one is guaranteeing there won’t be terror attacks carried out by Hamas. It doesn’t matter which Palestinian is firing, it’s a problem for us,” said Palmor.
“We could easily say as a precondition we need guarantees that there won’t be any terror,” he said. But Israel has not laid down any such terms and Palmor urged that the Palestinian Authority act likewise.
While Israel, the US and some Arab states seek to keep the peace talks alive, Hamas made clear that it remains firmly opposed to any parley with Israel and is urging the Arab League to reject the continuation of peace talks when it meets to discuss the issue next week.
[1] “Israeli man, pregnant woman injured in Route 60 shooting,” The Jerusalem Post, Sept. 26, 2010, http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=189325
