Israel, Palestine Resume Peace Talks

Abbas Urges Olmert To Freeze Israeli Construction In East Jerusalem

(AP)  Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday held their first summit since they agreed last month to renew peace talks, seeking to resolve a dispute over planned Israeli construction in east Jerusalem.

Abbas was demanding a freeze on the project, and appealed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before the meeting to press Israel on the issue. A State Department spokesman said Rice called both Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and urged them to make progress toward an agreement.

The summit, which began Thursday afternoon, was the first since the two sides kicked off official peace talks at a U.S.-sponsored conference last month. The Jerusalem dispute has already clouded meetings between negotiating teams since the gathering in Annapolis, Md.

Israel announced last month that it was building 307 new apartments in Har Homa, part of a ring of Jewish neighborhoods around east Jerusalem where about 180,000 Israelis live. Palestinians are demanding that Israel halt the project.

Israel, which annexed east Jerusalem after capturing it along with the West Bank in 1967, does not accept demands to limit its construction there.

Abu Rdeneh said joint committees would begin discussing the main issues, "but there is a need to freeze the settlement activities in order to create the appropriate atmosphere to bring progress in the peace process." He said Abbas would ask Olmert for "a clear cessation of settlement activities."

The main issues - final borders, Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem and its holy sites - have stymied years of peace efforts.

Thursday's meeting comes just two weeks before President Bush visits the region in an effort to build on momentum from the Annapolis summit.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel is committed to trying for a peace treaty with the Palestinians in 2008, as decided at Annapolis.

"This is an ambitious goal. It will demand our tenacity, our determination and both sides coming to the table in the spirit of seriousness," he said.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said "this (construction) kills the credibility of the peace process."

On Thursday, about seven Israeli tanks pushed about 330 yards into southern Gaza, clashing with armed Hamas militants, witnesses said. Israel frequently carries out airstrikes and ground incursions in Gaza to halt ongoing Palestinian attacks on southern Israeli communities.

The Israeli army did not confirm the incursion, but said it had carried out an air strike in the area after a border patrol was attacked with gunfire and mortars. There were no reports of injuries.

In the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik on Wednesday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also criticized the Jerusalem construction plans in a meeting with the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who in turn pressed Egypt to do more to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza.

Israel is concerned that Gaza's Hamas rulers are using tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border to smuggle ammunition and explosives to brace for an intensified round of fighting against Israel. Egypt angrily rejected the charges.

At the meeting, the two sides agreed to set up a joint security team to coordinate anti-smuggling operations, and Israel said it would consider supplying Egypt with technology and intelligence reports, Israeli security officials said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the contacts.

An influential U.S. senator visiting Israel said Wednesday that Egypt must crack down on the "intolerable" flow of the weapons into the Gaza Strip.

"And if they don't, I think it would be appropriate to condition aid to them," Sen. Arlen Specter, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters in Jerusalem.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni infuriated Cairo earlier this week by accusing its forces of doing a "terrible" job in securing the border, saying this stands in the way of Israel's negotiations with the Palestinians because it strengthens Gaza extremists.

Following his visit, Barak said the crisis with Egypt was over.

[runningralph]

neoconRcrazy,
We all know that The UN has no way of enforcing it''s resolutions. They passed 17 resolutions that Saddam should let inspectors in, to no avail. The UN is a good place for people to grandstand and posture, but real negotiations have to be done behind closed doors with the real parties. The UN has no teeth. Anyway if Israel is not abiding by the resolution to "get off your neighbor''s land" Palestine isn''t abiding by the "right to live in peace", they''re still shooting rockets into Israel.

[neoconrcrazy]

re-center all seven chakras

Posted by juwboy


don''t believe your capable of that juwboy

[juwboy]

neoconman:

That really harshed my mellow, dude!

Now, I have to, like, you know, re-center all seven chakras.

[neoconrcrazy]

Better yet, cover your mouth with your right hand to prevent any more verbal pig diarrhea from spurting out.

Posted by juwboy


typical reply from one who cannot defend the indefensible, like that clown dershowitz, a true nazi who defends assassination, killing of innocent civilians, torture, and palestinian prison camps (over 10''000 held for years w/o charges)

[juwboy]

tuckerndfw:

Do your religious Islamic duty and wipe the pschitt off your @ss with your left hand, Moslem boy!

Better yet, cover your mouth with your right hand to prevent any more verbal pig diarrhea from spurting out.

[rhs648]

Translated for those israelis who don''''t understand plain English - Get off your neighbor''''s land !!----

Posted by neoconRcrazy

The Arabs lost the land when they lost the war. How hard is it to understand this. Wage war and lose your land. This concept is as old as mankind.

[denn034]

All the best but, my hopes aren''t up.

[cbs_oliver]

They need to keep talking about peace in Palestine otherwise more folks would remember that Abbas does not really represent anyone other than Fatah, the US and Israel.

It is a shame that the AP is so quick to ignore the law and follow US government doctrine about who is the legal government of a place and a people.

It is easy to imagine that all that might be required for teh US government to overthrow a government - at least in the news - would be to issue a directive to the AP about who to acknowledge and who to ignore as leaders.

The votes of millions count for nothing if a few people in the US government instruct that they don''t.

[truthheals]

Spot on, neo

[neoconrcrazy]

"Israel, which annexed east Jerusalem after capturing it along with the West Bank in 1967, does not accept demands to limit its construction there."

REPLY OF THE WORLD STILL IS:

The Security Council, (RESOLUTION 242 in part)

Expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East,

Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security,

Emphasizing further that all Member States in their acceptance of the Charter of the United Nations have undertaken a commitment to act in accordance with Article 2 of the Charter,

1. Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force; "

Translated for those israelis who don''t understand plain English - Get off your neighbor''s land !!