Space Travel News  
WAR REPORT
US seeks 'better focus' on reviving Mideast talks

Fayyad claims 'birth certificate' for Palestinian statehood
Brussels (AFP) April 13, 2011 - Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Wednesday that UN endorsement of his administration's readiness to govern amounted to "a birth certificate" for statehood. Fayyad made the claim after the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process said in a report that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was "sufficient for a functioning government of a state." He was speaking after a meeting of international donors, chaired in Brussels by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store, along with an Israeli government official, that backed the assessment by the UN, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Fayyad said the talks in Brussels amounted to "a landmark event" after participants "effectively recognised the reality of a state of Palestine."

He said it was "what amounts to effectively a birth certificate for the reality of Palestinian statehood." Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold since late 2010 over Jewish settlement in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and the United States appears at odds with Europe over the validity of moves to resume dialogue. Speaking for the Middle East Quartet, envoy and former British prime minister Tony Blair said "credible political negotiations" were needed on a "very urgent" basis to "revive the political process." The European Union also granted duty-free access to farming and fishing goods from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip at the talks, and participants also including Russia and the United States backed observer status for the PA at the World Trade Organization.

In the latest signs of growing European support for a Palestinian state, Brussels granted "immediate duty free access to the EU market" of half a billion consumers for the next 10 years. The "only exception" to the duty-free goods access is a "specific duty for imports of fruit and vegetables" under what is known as an "entry price system," which prevents Palestinian exporters from radically undercutting domestic EU growers and rival exporters. The Palestinian Authority is one of the EU's smallest trading partners worldwide, with imports worth just 6.1 million euros ($8.8 million) in 2009. Irit Ben-Abba, an Israeli economic affairs ministry official, said progress on governance was mainly down to Israeli customs and treasury action, and said Palestinian exporters already benefitted from free-trade deals negotiated by Israel.
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) April 13, 2011
The United States said Wednesday it is looking for a "better focus" on reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after Arab uprisings crowded the agenda in the last few months.

In a speech on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Washington's "active" leadership in solving the decades-old conflict as she said the status quo between the Israelis and Palestinians is "unsustainable."

A State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said Clinton sought to counter skeptics about chances for peace after she helped relaunch negotiations last September only to see them stall within weeks.

"It's not necessarily a new push (for peace)... but rather a redoubling of our efforts.... We're aware that some wonder whether there is any hope for progress," Toner told reporters.

"We're committed to this process and that we'll make sure we commit the energy necessary to see it fulfilled," he added.

Toner acknowledged that the parties had agreed to a September 2011 deadline to settle core differences.

"Our goal is to get them back to the negotiating table and we do recognize that September is inexorably approaching and that it's important for us to keep the momentum, or rejuvenate this process rather," Toner said.

Toner played down suggestions that President Barack Obama's administration sought to introduce new ideas to break the deadlock.

"We're always open to new ideas and new approaches but fundamentally we know what needs to be done, which is to get the parties together to get them talking about these core issues so that they can resolve them," he said.

The core issues are security for Israel, the boundaries of a future Palestinian state, the status of the disputed city of Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Toner suggested the recent wave of Arab uprisings has overshadowed US attempts to revive the peace process.

"I don't know that there has ever been a slackening in our approach to Middle East peace, but certainly there's been a lot of other issues that have come to the fore in recent months," Toner said.

"I think you're going to see in the weeks ahead a better focus on the Middle East peace process and we can push it forward," he added.

He said that the Arab uprisings and the peace process are all "interconnected and we need to take advantage of this opportunity to pursue peace in the Middle East."

Toner appeared to undercut suggestions that a meeting of the Middle East Quartet -- the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- had been planned for Berlin this week.

"There was nothing ever announced.... We're open to a meeting of the Quartet when that meeting has value," he said.

France said Wednesday it regretted the postponement of a Quartet meeting in Berlin.

Diplomats at the United Nations said Tuesday that the meeting planned for Friday was put off because the United States was blocking a European bid to break the stalemate.

earlier related report
West Bank settlers furious at peace move
Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Apr 13, 2011 - Hard-line Jewish settlers in the West Bank are threatening "unilateral steps" after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was reported to be mulling a military withdrawal from the region to avert a "diplomatic tsunami" if the Palestinians declare their own state.

The hard-liners hinted at a possible takeover of parts of the West Bank, which religious Jews call by its biblical name of Judea and Samaria.

That could trigger a dangerous confrontation between diehard settlers and the Israeli government, more explosive than previous showdowns.

Sources close to Netanyahu's inner Cabinet say a military withdrawal is one of several options he's examining amid growing expectations that the United Nations General Assembly will endorse a unilateral Palestinian declaration of an independent state within the 1967 borders in September.

The settlers' governing council declared Tuesday warned that Netanyahu was "radiating panic" at the prospect of a Palestinian declaration of statehood.

"The correct path is to clarify that unilateral Palestinian steps will be met with our own unilateral steps, such as the assumption of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria or parts of it," it said.

The extremists among the estimated 300,000 settlers have been alarmed by recent shifts in mainstream Israeli thinking about the value of holding onto the West Bank.

This trend, which has been gathering momentum for some time, was embodied in a commentary written by prominent Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld and published by The Forward, a U.S. Jewish weekly, in December.

He concluded that "it is crystal clear that Israel can easily afford to give up the West Bank" and most of Arab East Jerusalem, both occupied since 1967, without sacrificing its security and survivability as a nation state.

To rightwing hard-liners, who claim that God gave the West Bank to the Jews for eternity, this is anathema and a blasphemous betrayal.

"Strategically speaking," van Creveld wrote, "the risk of doing so is negligible.

"What is not negligible is the demographic, social, cultural and political challenge that ruling over 2.5 million -- nobody know exactly how many -- occupied Palestinians in the West Bank poses.

"Should Israeli rule over them continue, then the country will definitely turn into what it already fast becoming: namely, an apartheid state that can only maintain its control by means of repressive secret police actions," van Creveld wrote.

"To save itself from such a fate, Israel should rid itself of the West Bank, most of Arab Jerusalem specifically included. If possible it should do so by agreement with the Palestinian Authority; if not, then it should proceed unilaterally."

There have been other signs the settlers fear the government is moving toward what they deem a sell-out.

The liberal Haaretz daily reported that hard-line settlers and rightwing religious Jews had mounted an "organized campaign" to prevent Netanyahu appointing a security chief who has hounded Jewish extremists to be director of the General Security Service, Israel's equivalent of the FBI and known as Shin Bet.

The official, known only as "I" for security reasons, headed the service's Jewish Department and been responsible for arresting Jewish extremists who attacked Arabs.

Netanyahu did not appoint him. Haaretz said "this was accomplished by directing political pressure at the prime minister."

The newspaper declared the hard-liners' "inappropriate intervention demonstrated their continued degeneration into behavior best described as sectarian, tribal and provincial."

It's not clear why Netanyahu did not promote "I" to replace the outgoing GSS chief, Yuval Diskin, who had warned of the dangers posed by Jewish extremists as he prepared to leave office May 15.

There clearly was political pressure. But whatever the reasons, Netanyahu's choice was in the end someone who is expected to get tough with the hardliners.

Yoram Cohen is an Arabist and deputy director with 30 years' experience in Shin Bet, most of it in the West Bank where he ran the organization's counter-terrorism unit.

Cohen, 51, is also a religious Jew, the first to be appointed to head Shin Bet.

Rightwing extremists believe he will crack down hard on them, if only to prove his credentials at a time when attacks on Palestinians by Jewish hardliners have intensified.

Cohen "is known as a hater of settlers," said leading activist Noam Federman, "and a prominent one at that."



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


WAR REPORT
Medvedev to Zuma: Let's work together on Libya
Sanya, China (AFP) April 13, 2011
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday told his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma their countries should work together to resolve armed conflicts including the one unfolding in Libya. The two leaders met briefly in the southern Chinese city of Sanya on the eve of the BRICS summit, which will bring them together with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Brazil's Dilma Rousseff and Indian P ... read more







WAR REPORT
Arianespace Flight VA201: Interruption Of The Countdown

PSLV Launch On April 20

Russia Looks To Grab Half Of World Space Launch Market

Mitsubishi Electric's ST-2 Satellite Arrives In French Guiana

WAR REPORT
Several Drives This Week Put Opportunity Over 17-Mile Mark

Next Mars Rover Nears Completion

Mars In Spain

Study Of 'Ruiz Garcia' Rock Completed

WAR REPORT
BRP To Contribute To Canadian Moon And Mars Exploration Programs

Naveen Jain Co-Founder And Chairman Of Moon Express

Project Morpheus To Begin Testing At NASA's Johnson Space Center

NASA Announces Winners Of 18th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race

WAR REPORT
Later, Uranus: New Horizons Passes Another Planetary Milestone

Can WISE Find The Hypothetical Tyche In Distant Oort Cloud

Theory: Solar system has another planet

Launch Plus Five Years: A Ways Traveled, A Ways To Go

WAR REPORT
Telescope Ferrets Out Planet-Hunting Targets

White Dwarfs Could Be Fertile Ground For Other Earths

NASA Announces 2011 Carl Sagan Fellows

Report Identifies Priorities For Planetary Science 2013-2022

WAR REPORT
100-Year Starship Study Strategic Planning Workshop Held

NASA Test Stand Passes Review For Next-Generation Rocket Engine Testing

TEXUS 49 Lifts Off With Four German Experiments On Board

A Reusable Manned Deep - Space Craft

WAR REPORT
Asia's star ever brighter in space

What Future for Chang'e-2

China setting up new rocket production base

China's Tiangong-1 To Be Launched By Modified Long March II-F Rocket

WAR REPORT
WISE Mission Spots 'Horseshoe' Asteroid

WISE Mission Spots Horseshoe Asteroid

Dawn Approaches Asteroid Vesta

Newly Discovered Asteroid Is Earth's Companion


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement