Word: jerusalem
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...Abbas' statement, of course, was not the PLO leadership but the Obama Administration. According to Palestinian sources who attended the meeting, Abbas told his PLO comrades that the U.S. had "cheated" him by retreating from its insistence that Israel end settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. "We welcomed it, and were optimistic when President Obama announced the need for a complete halt to settlements, including natural growth," Abbas said. "We were surprised by his support for the Israeli position." (The U.S. has backed Israel's argument that negotiations should resume despite the disagreement over the settlements. Last...
...Amman-based Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabani. "The Palestinian Central Election Committee is expected to conclude that the election Abbas called for in January can't be held, because Hamas won't allow them to go ahead in Gaza, and Israel won't allow them to go ahead in East Jerusalem ... So what he did today was announce that he won't be a candidate in an election he knows is not going to happen. It would be meaningful only if he announced his actual resignation from the positions he holds as head of the PA, Fatah...
...leadership believes there's nothing to be gained from talking to the hawkish Netanyahu government. From the perspective of Fatah, the almost two decades spent relying on U.S.-led diplomacy to deliver Palestinian national goals has delivered precious little. As Israel's encroachment in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has continued apace, Fatah's inability to reverse that situation via negotiations has played a major role in its eclipse by the more radical Hamas movement...
...edgier tone has been evident from the start of the Administration: she took a sharper position than the President on an Israeli settlement freeze by claiming, in May, that Obama wanted "to see a stop to settlements. Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural-growth exceptions." And then, in Jerusalem, her use of the word unprecedented seemed a rhetorical leap beyond the No Drama ground rules.(Read "Clinton's Collateral Damage...
...White House was not entirely thrilled with either statement. But then the White House staff is several steps removed from a negotiating process. The Palestinians are weak and divided. The Israelis have been difficult, as always: whenever Mitchell raises East Jerusalem in talks with the Israeli Foreign Minister, the Israeli stands up and walks out of the room. Despite Netanyahu's momentary, tactical enthusiasm for peace talks, his Likud Party has always favored the de facto incorporation of Palestinian lands into the state of Israel...