(Image source: Haaretz)
BY STEVEN SPARKMAN
ANCHOR CHRISTY LEWIS
You're watching multisource world video news analysis from Newsy.
With the Palestinian statehood bid still under review by the U.N., interested parties have renewed calls for direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel responded to the calls Sunday morning. Here’s CNN.
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said today it supports the Middle East Quartet’s call for the resumption of direct talks with the Palestinians within the next month. Israel called on the Palestinian authority to do the same.”
The Quartet, which includes the U.S., the E.U., Russia, and the U.N. issued a call for renewed talks in late September. The goal is to reach an agreement on territory and security before the end of the year.
But the specifics of the Quartet’s call were vague, and The Washington Post reports, both parties interpreted it differently.
“In particular, the initiative does not explicitly address the main sticking point that led to the collapse of talks a year ago: continued Israeli settlement expansion. The Palestinians assert that they will not resume negotiations unless the building stops, a demand rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called for an immediate resumption of talks without preconditions.”
The Palestinians maintain the Israeli government cannot truly say they agree to the Quartet’s call for peace talks without a settlement freeze, which has been part of the Quartet’s road map since 2003. To make things even more complicated, the settlement issue came up again this week.
“...the Regional Planning and Building Council in Jerusalem approved construction of 1,100 apartments on the southern slopes of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, which is over the Green Line. … The Quartet warned that Israel's move endangers its efforts to achieve peace.”
The Israeli government defended the move, saying that Gilo is a Jewish neighborhood, and has been governed as such for 40 years. But a writer for the Economist says the timing of the announcement was a deliberate move to score political points.
“The move, a breach of the Quartet's demand the parties [refrain] from provocative steps, will likely sabotage Mr Abbas's return to the table, and by prompting a Palestinian rejection enable Mr Netanyahu to cast Mr Abbas as the deal-breaker.”
Transcript by Newsy.
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