Israel, Palestinians agree to resume indirect peace talks

Mar 8, 2010 — Washington Post

Janine Zacharia

JERUSALEM -- Israel and the Palestinians agreed Monday to resume indirect peace negotiations mediated by the United States, said President Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell.

Mitchell, who shuttled between Israeli and Palestinian officials the past few days, said he would return to the region next week to continue discussions on the "structure and scope" of the negotiations.

Mitchell released the statement two hours after Vice President Biden arrived in Israel for a four-day visit designed to reassure the Israeli leadership about the United States' commitment to curbing Iran's nuclear program, seek progress in the peace process and win over an Israeli public, some of whom felt snubbed in the past year by Obama, who visited Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia but skipped Israel.

Mitchell said he hoped the indirect talks would lead to "direct negotiations as soon as possible. We also again encourage the parties, and all concerned, to refrain from any statements or actions which may inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of these talks."

The outlook for a resumption of negotiations was clouded by Israel's announcement on Monday of construction of 112 new housing units in the West Bank settlement Beitar Ilit. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas protested the move while meeting with Mitchell in Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian governance in the West Bank.

The Israeli Defense Ministry released a statement saying the units were approved before Israel agreed to a 10-month moratorium on new settlement construction in November, a move the United States had hoped would give Abbas enough political cover to return to negotiations toward Palestinian statehood.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have traditionally met face to face to discuss the core issues of the conflict: the future of Jerusalem, borders, security and the fate of Palestinian refugees. Talks broke down most recently after Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008, which left more than 1,000 Palestinians dead and was aimed at stopping rockets from being fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. The United States has decided that circumstances now would allow only so-called "proximity" talks instead.

Few long-time observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict believe such indirect negotiations are reason to celebrate. Proximity talks are a "throwback to what we did 20 years ago," said Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and to Egypt. "Palestinians and Israelis have negotiated face to face in direct talks for 20 years, and it's not understandable why we would now have them sit in separate rooms and move between them," Kurtzer told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week.

Biden is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials Tuesday and with Abbas on Wednesday. On Thursday, Biden will deliver a speech on U.S.-Israel relations before leaving for Amman, Jordan.

Minutes before Biden -- the most senior U.S. official to visit Israel since Obama took office -- touched down at Ben Gurion airport outside of Tel Aviv, there were complaints that it was not Air Force One landing. "While we welcome Vice President Biden, a long-time friend and supporter of Israel, we see it as nothing short of an insult that President Obama himself is not coming," Danny Danon, the deputy speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, said in a statement.