Palestinian Negotiator Nabil Shaath

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Palestinian Negotiator Nabil Shaath

Palestinian officials on Wednesday expressed their pessimism that the Quartet for the Middle East proposal would be received and would constitute a basis for the resumption of the negotiations. The Quartet for the Middle East pushed on Wednesday for the resumption of the talks that would lead to establishing a state for the Palestinians and security guarantees for the state of Israel.

Speaking for the Radio Voice of Palestine, Nabil Shaath, a member of the Palestinian negotiating team, said that he was not sure whether the negotiations would lead to any result since the Quartet members – the United States, the United Nations, Russian Federation and the European Union –, had a very vague plan for them.

Shaath added that the Palestinian demands are clear and that they would not change. He said that Palestinians would not engage in serious negotiations unless the settlement building were frozen and the border to the state of Palestine would be the one established before the Six Days War in 1967.

The negotiator said that the Quartet does not seem to understand that Palestinians have no use for negotiations as long as the land is being “stolen from under their feet.”

Israel in turn announced that the Quartet delegation was welcome in its attempt to resume the negotiations that would lead to a solution for Palestine and Israel before the UN Security Council gets to vote for the Palestinian statehood bid.

The United States on Wednesday warned Israel to renounce a plan to build new settlements in the zones that surround the East Jerusalem, saying that the decision to go on with them favors the vote in the UN Security Council on Palestinian request for full membership.

The plan was severely criticized by Angela Merkel, who has enlisted impressive support of Israel over the last weeks in the attempt to avert a success of the bid for independence, and also, at the request of the Israeli PM, has pressured Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, to accept the resumption of negotiations.

Israeli sources say that Merkel is “furious” and “does not believe a word Netanyahu says,” according to Haaretz.

Netanyahu rejected criticism of the plan to construct saying that Gilo was not a settlement but a neighborhood of the city of Jerusalem.

The Israeli PM showed a week a go a willingness to demand a halt to governmental constructions in the West Bank as a means to give Abbas a reason to return to the negotiation table.

He warned though that this would not be a settlement new freeze because the private entrepreneurs, which are a majority in the West Bank, would continue their activity in the region.

Palestinian officials also reminded the Israeli government that in 2008 former PM Ehud Olmert had promised to release some Fatah prisoners in Israel in exchange for the resumption of talks.

In October 2010, the incumbent PM agreed to a proposition made by the US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, who proposed that a number of Fatah prisoners be released in exchange for the resumption of indirect negotiations.

The exchange of prisoners comes at a proposal after Hamas was successful in freeing 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, mostly Hamas activists, in exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, a victory that counted very much in the internal struggle between Palestinian parties Hamas and Fatah.

Israel Defense Forces officials told the cabinet that some gestures of good should be done for the Palestinian president, so that his position should not e weakened in favor of Hamas. They warned that Abbas was very important for the Israel as a dialogue partner, and his resignation should be avoided.

Their assessment comes in contradiction with what the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman had said about Abbas, whom he considers the main obstacle to peace and negotiations. Lieberman said that the negotiations would be better off without Abbas.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority announced that it would resume negotiations with Hamas, and that Abbas would meet in Cairo Khaled Mashaal, leader of Hamas.

Fatah and Hamas met in March in Cairo and an agreement was signed so that the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza may have an unified representation. The agreement ran into some difficulties over the past few months, and the two leaders will meet in order for them to decide who will lead the army and how Israel will be approached from now on, since Hamas does not recognize the existence of the Jewish State.

In March, the Israeli PM said that the agreement between Fatah and Hamas was a victory of terrorism over democratic ways, and condemned Abbas for letting himself dragged into such dialogue.

Israel itself seems to improve relations with neighborly Egypt, after it offered an official apology last week for the incident at the border, that cost eight Egyptian soldiers their lives.

On Thursday, the Israel Prison Service took into Egyptian territory 25 Egyptian prisoners, which are to be exchanged for the US-Israeli citizen Ilan Grapel, who was arrested in Egypt over the summer under the accusation of espionage for Israel.

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