Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Netanyahu Agrees to Push for Freeze in Settlements
By MARK LANDLER .. Published: November 13, 2010

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has agreed to push his cabinet to freeze most construction on settlements in the West Bank for 90 days to break an impasse in peace negotiations with the Palestinians, an official briefed on talks between the United States and Israel said Saturday evening.
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The merry-go-round is on again .. fp: Name, blame and shame

Palestinian militants have expressed predictable outrage, but little in the way of any positive alternative. Hamas leader Khaled Mishal demanded the PA stop negotiations, declaring that "to negotiate without a position of strength is absurd".

But that is a throwaway line at best, tossed out by someone with nothing better to say. Hamas has done nothing in
the last decade to shape a strong Palestinian position (in fact quite the opposite), and he surely knows that.

As for the PA, chief negotiator Nabil Shaath explained his "surprise that America is unable to stop" settlements. But such surprise is feigned, at best. The US has never lifted a finger to stop settlements during the almost two-decade long Oslo era; nor for that matter has the PA, which to this very day has continued negotiating despite the ongoing theft of land and building of settlements.

The reason, of course, is that the PA as an institution is entirely the creation of the peace process, and if it ends, so will the PA.

It's the PA that allowed much of the Palestinian elite, including Mr. Shaath and Abbas, to grow incredibly rich through the corruption and lack of accountability. Such corruption was designed into the system to ensure that the Palestinian elite would be too invested in the process to stop it, no matter how far astray it goes.

Going precisely as planned

Netanyahu, of course, is playing hardball - a negotiating tactic that Israel has employed successfully for decades. So who can blame him for continuing to use it as long as it works?
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In return, the Obama administration has offered Israel a package of security incentives and fighter jets worth $3 billion that would be contingent on the signing of a peace agreement, the official said. The United States would also block any moves in the United Nations Security Council that would try to shape a final peace agreement.

The quid pro quo was hashed out by Mr. Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in seven and a half hours of talks in New York on Thursday.

The partial freeze would not include East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians view as the future capital of a Palestinian state and where recent Israeli building set off a firestorm of criticism.

It was unclear whether the prime minister could win approval for the United States deal from his cabinet, which has been reluctant to freeze settlement construction. It was also unclear if the leaks of the details of the agreement, which were widely reported in Israeli newspapers on Saturday, were designed to put pressure on Mr. Netanyahu.

He convened an unusual meeting of the inner council of his cabinet in Jerusalem on Saturday night, and he will meet with the full cabinet on Sunday, according to an Israeli official.

If approved, the agreement could surmount a stubborn hurdle to talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which began with much fanfare in Washington in early September but soon ran aground after Israel’s 10-month partial moratorium on settlement construction expired later that month.

It would also give President Obama a foreign policy victory after the Democrats’ midterm election losses and a tough few days for him in Asia, in which he failed to win support on trade and international economic issues.

The stalled Middle East peace process had loomed as another setback. The Palestinians have refused to return to the bargaining table unless Israel extends the moratorium. And Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton have failed to sway Mr. Netanyahu, despite repeated public and private entreaties.

Last week, Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu again traded barbed words after the Israeli authorities announced plans to build new Jewish housing in a contested part of East Jerusalem, while the prime minister was visiting the United States and Mr. Obama was traveling in Indonesia.

This proposed 90-day freeze would be nonrenewable: the United States would not ask for further extensions, the official with knowledge of the deliberations said.

The freeze would apply not only to new construction, but to building that began after the 10-month moratorium expired in September, the official said.
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INSERT: note, that is a new condition as during the last freeze work started could be completed.
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That is a particularly delicate stipulation, given the large number of houses that have begun being built since then. The ban would apply to residential building; public structures like schools and community centers would be unaffected.

The logic behind a 90-day extension is that the two sides would aim for a swift agreement on the borders of a Palestinian state. That would make the long dispute over settlements irrelevant since it would be clear which housing blocks fell into Israel and which fell into a Palestinian state.

The security incentives offered by the administration, though generous, do not appear to go far beyond the support the United States typically offers Israel. For example, the United States has not agreed to endorse a long-term Israeli security presence in the Jordan River Valley, the official said.

The American pledge to block initiatives in the Security Council appears aimed at heading off efforts by the Palestinian Authority to seek international support for a unilateral declaration of statehood — something it has considered in recent weeks as Israel has refused to reconsider a new building moratorium.

A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Jonathan Peled, declined to comment on the reports, as did Philip J. Crowley, the spokesman for the United States Department of State.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/world/middleeast/14mideast.html

Note, the US was about the first to recognize Kosovo as an independent state,
then again when were these situations ever settled on the integrity of the situation.