Netanyahu to U.S. Jews: Direct Mideast talks will begin very soon

It was a surprise to most of us that things went so smoothly. Reading between the lines, my guess is that Obama will broker a deal between Abbas and Israel whereby Israel will extend the freeze at least in part in exchange for Abbas agreeing to direct talks. This will happen before the end of the freeze so that Dems can benifit from deal in Nov elections. Belman

By Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid and The Associated Press

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. Jewish leaders on Wednesday that direct Palestinian-Israeli talks would begin “very soon”, but warned that they would be “very, very tough.”

Netanyahu told his cabinet earlier this week before flying to Washington for a meeting with President Barack Obama that the time had come for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to prepare to meet directly with the Israelis, as it was the only way to advance peace.

Israelis and Palestinians have been holding indirect talks mediated by Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell. Aides to Obama sounded a hopeful tone regarding the negotiations last week, telling reporters that the shuttle diplomacy between the two sides had paid off and the gaps have narrowed.

At a meeting with representatives of Jewish organizations at the Plaza Hotel late Wednesday, Netanyahu discussed the efforts to promote Middle East peace.”This is going to be a very, very tough negotiation,” he said, adding: “The sooner the better.”
Kfir Brigade

A sergeant during training in the Jordan Valley.
Photo by: Yuval Tebol

“Direct negotiations must begin right away, and we think that they will,” he said

Obama had warm words about Netanyahu after their talks on Tuesday and affirmed the unbreakable bond that links the United States and Israel.The last meeting between the two leaders earlier this year had been frosty, overshadowed by Israel’s announcement of construction in East Jerusalem despite the temporary settlement freeze.

Netanyahu on Wednesday described his meeting with Obama as positive, adding that America has no better friend or ally than the State of Israel.

In an interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric later Wednesday, Netanyahu was asked why he had such a positive outlook and whether anything in his talks with Obama had been disappointing.

“You know, you … you remind me of the Israeli press. They say, ‘How come you had a good meeting with President Obama?’ Well, because I did,” he responded.

“Because we, we actually see eye to eye on … some central issues. The quest for peace. The danger of Iran. The need to bolster security, for Israel and the region. That’s the truth. We do see it. Have we had differences? Of course we have.”

“Some awkward moments?” Couric asked. He replied: “Yeah, of course, we’ve had. So what?”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu told Larry King on CNN that he was prepared to discuss “right away” the future of settlements if Palestinians entered direct peace talks with Israel.

Asked if he would extend beyond September a 10-month moratorium on housing starts in settlements in the West Bank, Netanyahu said it was time for the Palestinians to drop preconditions for face-to-face talks.

“Let’s just get into the talks and one of the things we’ll discuss right away is this issue of settlements and that’s what I propose doing,” he said. “I put on a temporary freeze – seven months passed by but the Palestinians didn’t come and now they need another extension.”

“It requires courage on the Palestinian side to stand up and do what the latest president of Egypt Anwar Saddat did – to say ‘It’s over, enough with the bloodshed.'”

Asked if he would sit down at the negotiations table with Hamas, Netanyahu said he “would sit down with anyone who recognizes our existence and not calling for our destruction.”

Regarding the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, Netanyahu told King that he had received no response from Hamas.

“I’ve accepted the deal [of the mediator] and I hope they’ll change their mind,” he said.

Netanyahu also met with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, to discuss the efforts promote Middle East peace and the continuing closure of Gaza. The two met for nearly an hour at the UN headquarters, for talks that included a one-on-one discussion.

Netanyahu did not speak to reporters following those talks, and UN associate spokesman Farhan Haq issued a very brief statement saying only that they discussed the Middle East peace process, Gaza closures and Lebanon among other topics.

Following a meeting in Washington earlier Wednesday with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Netanyahu said said that a final status agreement must provide for the possibly of renewed hostilities on Israel’s eastern border following an American withdrawal from Iraq.

The prime minister’s comments appear to indicate that even after a withdrawal from Palestinian territory, he would insist on maintaining an Israeli military presence along the Jordan Valley, which forms the border between Jordan and the West Bank.

Netanyahu also told Gates that any peace settlement must include safeguards to prevent the transfer of rockets and other weapons into a future Palestinian state.

July 8, 2010 | 19 Comments »

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19 Comments / 19 Comments

  1. Let’s send Shebrew to the Arab section where she can show off her edible underware. Once they see her they will start commiting suicide because of their shame.

    I’m willing, but all they would do is thank Allah for providing them with the thrill of a lifetime. Most of those Arab gals look like Helen Thomas, and the rest look like Danny Thomas.

  2. President Obama said that the US and Israel share an “unbreakable” bond.

    …BB would make an ideal slave.

    Unbreakable bond = Chains of slavery.

  3. I have a suggestion. Let’s send Shebrew to the Arab section where she can show off her edible underware. Once they see her they will start commiting suicide because of their shame.

  4. President Obama said that the US and Israel share an “unbreakable” bond.

    Obama should know. He’s been trying to break it for months.

    Give him some more time, he may yet succeed. His biggest obstacle seems to be BB. BB would make an ideal slave.

  6. On Facebook, Fred Thompson writes:

    President Obama said that the US and Israel share an “unbreakable” bond.

    Obama should know. He’s been trying to break it for months.

  7. My fantasy involves a magnum of the finest champagne, edible lingerie, and my love slave Enrique Iglesias. To make the fantasy relevant to this conversation, the lingerie is made of Sabra Hummus.

  8. I believe we all have a similar fantasy and if we all ask G-d/God for help just maybe He will allow our fantasies to come true, especially if removing these characters from office will better serve the citizens and the world as a whole.

    I ask every day, your asking will help and by G-d/God we do need His help.

  9. I have a fantasy that God will do to Netanyahu and Obama what He did to Sharon.

    probably not the same, but something very special that’s for sure

  11. I have a fantasy that the mossad discovered information about Obama’s citizenship and that Bibi came to Washington and blackmailed Obama with it.

    As I said it’s a fantasy that I’m hoping comes true.

    I did not get the logic behind: Obama knows that he is not a national born citizen, also the Supreme Court knows it, the media know it, the case is on the internet, no need for the mossad. and anyway: the mossad is dead since long, they even did not know that there were terrorists on the turkish ship!!!!! the whole preoccupation of the mossad today is to please the goyim and to fight against faithful Jews. well, they won’t last for long, hopefully their end is already in sight, with Hashem’s Will.

  14. shalom Laura,

    I have a fantasy that the mossad discovered information about Obama’s citizenship and that Bibi came to Washington and blackmailed Obama with it.

    I suppose you’re joking

  15. I have a fantasy that the mossad discovered information about Obama’s citizenship and that Bibi came to Washington and blackmailed Obama with it.

  16. Palestinian leader calls for Arab invasion of Israel

    Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, branded a “moderate” by the international community, let his true colors show during a recent meeting with writers and journalists when he stated that he would favor a pan-Arab military offensive against the Jewish state.

    The official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on Tuesday wrote that when Abbas met recently with media figures at the home of the Palestinian ambassador to Jordan, he recounted that during an Arab League Summit in Libya in March he told his fellow leaders that he still preferred war against Israel, but could not do it alone.

    “We are unable to confront Israel militarily, and this point was discussed at the Arab League Summit,” said Abbas. “There I turned to the Arab States and I said: ‘If you want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor. But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they don’t have the ability to do it.'”

    The Arab states of the Middle East have tried at least three times to militarily destroy Israel, but each time ended up losing territory to the Jewish state.

    The “Palestinian crisis” that was birthed after Israel’s liberation of Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”) in 1967 is seen by many Israelis as nothing more than a more calculated and patient approach to ultimately removing Israel from the map.

    Yasser Arafat admitted as much in 1993 when he told fellow Palestinians in a pre-recorded message played on Arab television as he signed the “Oslo Accords” that his PLO’s guerilla tactics and eventual land-for-peace diplomacy was a phased strategy that would lead to the complete replacement of Israel with another Arab Muslim state:

    “Do not forget that our Palestine National Council accepted the decision in 1974. It called for the establishment of a national authority on any part of Palestinian land that is liberated or from which the Israelis withdrew… This is the moment of return, the moment of gaining a foothold on the first liberated Palestinian land.”

    The 1974 decision referenced by Arafat was the PLO’s official acceptance of a phased strategy for destroying Israel, as opposed to the more direct strategy of military conquest that had been employed up until the Yom Kippur War a year earlier.

    Despite co-founding the PLO with Arafat, Abbas has long been whitewashed by an international community eager to impose its idea of peaceful conflict resolution on the region. That is why Abbas’ remarks in Arabic, such as the one above, are regularly ignored by the world media and Western leaders. But Israelis warn that his views, and the influence they have an the Palestinian general public, ensure that a genuine and lasting peace is impossible to achieve.

    This is who Israel will be talking to about peace?

  18. …the gaps have narrowed.

    Who capitulated, BB, Obama, or both?

    My guess too is that Obama softened his rhetoric ahead of the fall elections. Regardless, anything that he does will be calculated to advance Islam in the Middle East. It’s a political show by both parties; the same thing we’ve seen for decades whereby politicians only appear to be moving forward but the stage is a treadmill.

  19. another vain hope, another waste of time
    BB is good for nothing
    the whole secular approach is a complete and absolute failure

    the only right option is to confront the enemy,
    in this case there is good chance that they will surrender without war,
    but if they opt for war they will lose all together

    on the other hand,
    the secular “talk option” leads inevitably to WAR