Netanyahu rejects peace talks based on 1967 borders

[azurnoir]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday rejected a Palestinian demand that direct negotiations be based on a statement by the Quartet confirming its position that the future Palestinian state will be based on the 1967 borders.

Meeting in Jerusalem with U.S. envoy George Mitchell, Netanyahu repeated his demand for the renewal of direct talks without preconditions. Mitchell briefed Netanyahu on his meeting on Tuesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and gave the prime minister the Palestinian proposal.

According to Palestinian sources, Mitchell did not dismiss Abbas' proposal. Abbas is demanding a clear framework for the direct talks and an Israeli commitment to cease construction activity in the settlement during the negotiations.

The Quartet - the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - issued the statement after a meeting in Moscow on March 19. It calls for 24 months of talks between Israel and the PA that would result in an agreement on the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The statement said that the founding of the Palestinian state would end the occupation that began in 1967. It also called on Israel to institute a total freeze of construction in West Bank settlements and to refrain from home demolitions in East Jerusalem. The declaration even went so far as to mention that the international community does not recognize Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-rejects-peace-talks-based-on-1967-borders-1.307430

[Chulanowa]

1. It sounds like Abbas' balls grew three sizes

Good for him. Let's hope he keeps his new cup size; the Palestinians will get nothing if they keep conceding before talks even begin.

[Ken Burch]

2. No surprise. Bibi has never wanted peace.

Neither has anyone else in Likud. That's why Sharon had to form a new party even to make his extremely limited proposals for ending the conflict.

Peace is the one eventuality that could break the right-wing grip on Israeli politics. No politician voluntarily does something that will destroy his own party and its allies.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. There are preconditions or there are not...

[Jim Sagle]

4. Haaretz displays is dishonesty through its headline.

"Bibi Rejects Preconditions on Peace Talks" would be a straight-up rendition. Haaretz has a Palestine First slant.

[Chulanowa]

5. Haaretz RRRAAAAAAAAAWWWKKXXXXXXZZ!!!

[whosinpower]

6. LOL.nt

[Ken Burch]

11. Without preconditions, the talks would be meaningless.

No Palestinian state whose borders were shaped on Netanyahu's terms could be viable.

Especially not when Bibi will insist on being able to shut such a state down at will, as he did to the PA a few years ago when he reinistituted the Occupation.

[UndertheOcean]

7. NuttinYaHOO can suck my hairy Arab balls

[sabbat hunter]

8. something that I seem to continually ask

and yet never seem to get a straight answer is this.
Does east Jerusalem consist of the old city? If so, what gives a Palestine any more rights to it than Israel?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. You could have omitted the last five words.

The Green line, or a very close approximation thereof, is the only hope for peace (or rather, the nearest thing there is to one).

[shira]

10. You seriously believe it's a land issue after Olmert's 2008 offer? n/t

[Tripmann]

12. You seriously believe Olmers offers worth the paper its written on after bibi wiped his ass with it?