Carter says Israel must stop building settlements

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"Former President Jimmy Carter says Israel must stop building settlements in Palestine for there to be peace in the Middle East.

Carter, a Nobel Peace laureate, spoke Monday night as he and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter received an award honoring their humanitarian efforts from James Madison University's Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence.

Carter, 84, who helped bring peace between Egypt and Israel with the Camp David Accords when he was president, has maintained a strong interest in the Middle East. He said he has visited the region three times within the past year.

Carter says he's convinced that withdrawal of Israeli occupying forces from Palestine and other neighboring countries will dramatically reduce any threats to Israel."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hd2fITdGTkzD6xM8-wRhEMZIlokwD9AS2D380


Aide: Netanyahu won't bend on settlements

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"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won't bend on his opposition to a settlement freeze when he meets the American and Palestinian leaders in New York, a top aide said Monday.

The tough Israeli line could signal trouble for Tuesday's summit, where President Barack Obama is bringing together Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in hopes of relaunching peace talks.

Israeli and Palestinian officials, feuding over the ongoing settlement construction in West Bank, have warned that no breakthroughs are expected.

Abbas has refused to resume negotiations without an Israeli commitment to freeze construction in the West Bank, a call echoed by the U.S. administration. The Palestinians say the meeting does not constitute negotiations.

Netanyahu's media adviser, Nir Hefetz, said the prime minister would hold firm to his opposition to a settlement freeze.

"You have never heard the prime minister say that he will freeze settlements. The opposite is true," Hefetz Army Radio ahead of Netanyahu's departure on Monday.

"He sees the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria as a Zionist enterprise and he sees the settlers ... as his brothers, our brothers, and acts accordingly," Hefetz said, using the Hebrew terms for the West Bank."

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"We can't want peace more than the parties themselves," President George W. Bush once said of his Administration's limited efforts to broker agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. And while President Barack Obama has brought more vigor and urgency than his predecessor to the quest for a two-state peace, this week he finds himself in the position of wanting to restart peace talks more than the parties themselves do. Obama will meet with Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session in New York City. But both sides have made clear that they'll essentially be humoring Obama, showing up because the President of the United States expects it of them and not to relaunch long-stalled "final status" peace negotiations, as the Administration had hoped.

Abbas has refused to relaunch negotiations with the Israelis until they agree to the freeze on construction on land conquered in 1967 — as Obama has demanded — and agree to negotiate on all final-status issues, including sharing Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees. Netanyahu's government has offered only a partial settlement freeze and refuses to negotiate over Jerusalem or refugees. So while Abbas will glumly show up in New York City, he has no intention of relaunching negotiations on the terms currently on offer. "The Americans have failed to convince the Israelis to halt settlement, and now they want a photo opportunity," a Palestinian official speaking to Reuters said of the New York City meeting. "We'll do this not to upset Obama. But it's a victory for Netanyahu." (See pictures of life in the West Bank settlements.)

The Israeli leader, for his part, has been quite happy to hold peace talks with Abbas, but not on the terms envisaged by the Palestinian leader or Obama. After years of rejecting the idea of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu has responded to Obama's pressure by accepting the principle of it, but on terms too limited to be accepted by any Palestinian leader. Skeptical of the value of negotiating now over a long-term political settlement and insisting that key final-status issues such as Jerusalem and refugees are not up for negotiation, Netanyahu prefers to focus on what he calls "economic peace" — developing the Palestinian economy as a basis for long-term stability in the relationship between the two peoples. But he's happy to go through the motions on his own terms. "There'll ... be some kind of handshake, because this is what Obama wants," an Israeli official told Reuters. "But it's not going anywhere longer term ... With all due respect to Obama, this is not realistic. Everyone wants a process ... but nobody actually wants peace — because peace you have to pay for."

Obama has made restarting the peace process a foreign policy priority and a key plank of his effort to repair relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world. But nine months of intensive diplomacy by his special envoy, Senator George Mitchell, has produced little substantial movement toward reviving negotiations. As he makes his U.N. debut this week, Obama needs the symbolic New York City meeting more than Netanyahu and Abbas do. Indeed, a White House spokesman told the New York Times that the purpose of the meeting is to "show (the President's) determination to get the process moving again."

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For a Nobel Peace Prize winner he sure seems unaware of the basics.

Carter says something about Israel, and Israel's American megaphones attack him.

Too bad the Camp David Accords did not include the Palestinian issue.

When the self-governing authority (administrative council) in the West Bank and Gaza is established and inaugurated, the transitional period of five years will begin. As soon as possible, but not later than the third year after the beginning of the transitional period, negotiations will take place to determine the final status of the West Bank and Gaza and its relationship with its neighbours and to conclude a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan by the end of the transitional period. These negotiations will be conducted among Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the elected representatives of the inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza. Two separate but related committees will be convened, one committee, consisting of representatives of the four parties which will negotiate and agree on the final status of the West Bank and Gaza, and its relationship with its neighbours, and the second committee, consisting of representatives of Israel and representatives of Jordan to be joined by the elected representatives of the inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza, to negotiate the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, taking into account the agreement reached in the final status of the West Bank and Gaza. The negotiations shall be based on all the provisions and principles of UN Security Council Resolution 242. The negotiations will resolve, among other matters, the location of the boundaries and the nature of the security arrangements. The solution from the negotiations must also recognize the legitimate right of the Palestinian peoples and their just requirements. In this way, the Palestinians will participate in the determination of their own future through

http://www.jerusalemites.org/facts_documents/camp_david.htm