Israel should take the position that they will build according to the Bush letter and n0t Obama’s denial of it. She should also reiterate, Peace, yes: 67 lines plus swaps never. Ted Belman
Presenting a peace plan in secretary of state’s meeting with Palestinian negotiator would be unproductive, State Dept. spokeswoman says; ‘It’s up to the parties to take steps.’
Top US diplomat John Kerry on Monday was to meet the chief Palestinian negotiator but would not unveil an American peace plan, an official said, adding such a move would be unproductive.
“There are no current plans to introduce a peace plan,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, dismissing reports that proposals would be laid on the table during Kerry’s meeting with Saeb Erakat in Washington.
Kerry’s bid to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians ended in failure earlier this year, leaving bitter recriminations on both sides.
US officials have insisted progress was made during some nine months of intense shuttle diplomacy, but have resisted calls to formulate Washington’s own peace plan as a means of bringing the two sides back to the negotiating table.
“It’s up to the parties to take steps,” Psaki said.
“We know what the issues are, we know what the conditions would be, but it’s up to them. So we’re only going to take steps that we think would be productive.”
Psaki on Monday blasted Israel for approving plans for 500 settler homes in East Jerusalem.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week said it would build more than 1,000 new settler homes in the part of the holy city captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.
“It would be unfortunate” if after “the unequivocal and unanimous” opposition of the US and international community “Israeli authorities would actively seek to move these plans forward,” Psaki said.
She insisted the United States would be “willing to be a capable partner” if there was a move to resume negotiations, but said there was no current “evidence of that.”
On the part of Israel, Psaki said: “If they were going to restart a peace negotiation, we would be seeing actions and we’d be seeing efforts on their part to do that.”
A senior Palestinian official said at the weekend Washington was seeking to dissuade the Palestinians from pursuing further claims to statehood at the United Nations.
To that end Kerry was planning to put forward some proposals on the way forward, the Palestinian official said, asking not to be named.
Psaki said Kerry spoke with Netanyahu over the weekend as well as with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
She added that Kerry and Erakat would look at ways to lower tensions in East Jerusalem after a series of clashes and attacks in recent weeks.
@ LtCol Howard:
The terms settler & settlement have different cultural connotations in Israel from those familiar to American ears — which tend naturally to hear the words in the context of the American frontier, the taming of the West and all that.
And it’s more than merely a linguistic difference, if you consider the fact that the Charter of the original Mandate for Palestine (drafted in English) makes unapologetic references [Art. VI] to the DUTY of the (then-recently victorious) Principal Allied Powers — and their chosen mandatory, HMG of the UK — to encourage & expedite “close [viz., dense] SETTLEMENT of Jews” on [all] the land.
LtCol Howard Said:
Ze’ev im Ze’ev (And the Wolf Shall Dwell with the Wolf)
The Hebrew term Mitnachel means to settle… In Hebrew every village town and city is a settlement by definition. Every Kibbutz and Moshav is a settlement and were always called that, even after the State came into being called by everyone.
Settlements and those who live in settlements large and small are by definition settlers…. In Hebrew!!!!
Problem is the term has taken on a pejorative connotation in translation and the lefts monopoly of the narrative.
It’s less important that the Arabs gain control of the West Bank for these Israeli leftist traitors but that Zionist Religious Jews are leading the settlement movement…..
Our leftist traitors hate religious Jews if not all Jews more than they love or even care about the Arabs.
As Long as our traitors dominate the message, the terminology (definitions) it’s impossible to change or convince non Israelis to think and accept any other narrative and terminology and their specific Hebrew /Israeli contexts.
It has been obvious from the start that Obama’s end game is the elimination of the Jewish State.
I look for Obama to accelerate his jihad against Israel until someone confronts him and makes it politically untenable to continue.
I am not confident that special someone exists.
You once said two years is a long time to do immeasurable damage.
We will now get to see.
Use of the term “settler homes”??
The best way to lower tension built by theP Palestinian Authority reducing their is level of provocation.