Panetta: Iran could produce a nuclear bomb within a year
Iran needs one year to produce a nuclear bomb, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said during an interview with CBS News Sunday night. "The consensus is that, if they decided to do it, it would probably take them about a year to be able to produce a bomb and then possibly another one to two years in order to put it on a deliverable vehicle of some sort in order to deliver that weapon," Panetta said. Reiterating the US position on Iranian weapons, expressed in a previous CBS interview a month earlier, Panetta asserted that the United States does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, and will take "whatever necessary steps to stop it." "That is a red line for us," he said. "And it is a red line obviously for the Israelis so we share a common goal here. If we have to do it, we will do it." "If they proceed and we get intelligence that they are proceeding with developing a nuclear weapon then we will take whatever steps are necessary to stop it," he continued. When questioned as to whether this included military steps, Panetta repeated a refrain used constantly by both US and Israeli leaders: "There are no options off the table." UN nuclear inspectors arrived in Iran on Sunday, hoping to shed light on suspected military aspects of Tehran's atomic work, on the day its lawmakers look set to ban oil exports to Europe in revenge for new EU sanctions.
Mashaal: Hamas wants close ties with Jordan
A high-profile visit to Jordan by the leader of Hamas has revived contacts with the Palestinian terrorist group, but Jordan will not lift a ban on its activities there, a senior Jordanian official said Sunday. Khaled Mashaal's visit was part of Jordan's efforts to engage with previously shunned Islamists, who have been gaining ground across the region in Arab Spring uprisings. "It will only break the ice, following years of estrangement," said the official, who was attending talks between Khaled Mashaal and Jordan's King Abdullah II, "but Hamas will not be allowed to reopen its offices in Jordan." Re-establishing contact with Hamas also positions Jordan to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians. Mashaal holds a Jordanian passport, but the kingdom expelled him and four other Hamas leaders in 1999 for "illicit and harmful" activities, forcing Mashaal to set up camp in exile in Syria, from where he has led his group's political bureau. With the harsh Syrian government crackdown on protesters - including some Palestinians in Syria - Mashaal is looking for a new place to operate. Jordan blacklisted Hamas after an alleged weapons cache was discovered in the country six years ago. Since then, Mashaal was allowed to enter Jordan twice on humanitarian grounds - in August 2009 to attend his father's funeral, and again last October to visit his ailing mother. Speaking to reporters after the meeting on Sunday, Mashaal said Hamas was eager to develop "close and unique relations" with Jordan. He suggested more meetings could follow. "Hamas also cares for Jordan's security and stability," he said. Mashaal also acknowledged "limits and ceilings" in the relationship, which he said Hamas "respects," but he did not say if the group asked the king to reopen its offices here. Jordanian officials said the matter was not raised. The visit was arranged by the crown prince of Qatar, which is helping Hamas find a new home. Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip violently in 2007, opposes a peace deal with Israel. Jordan, a key US Mideast ally, has a signed peace treaty with Israel. It strongly advocates a negotiated settlement to the lingering Arab-Israeli conflict. A revival of contacts with Hamas would also allow Jordan to mediate between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the moderate Fatah faction and Hamas, his arch foe since 2007. Egypt has been trying to broker an agreement between both sides. Jordan hosted five meetings between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators this month in a bid to have them restart their peace talks. Jordanian Prime Minister Awn al-Khasawneh repeatedly said that expelling Mashaal was
UN wants end to West Bank demolitions
The United Nations on Friday called on Israel to immediately halt the destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank after reporting a dramatic rise in demolitions in the past year. Israeli forces destroyed 622 Palestinian homes in the West Bank in 2011, "forcibly displacing" almost 1,100 people, over half of them children, according to a UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report. "The current policy and practice of demolitions cause extensive human suffering and should end," said UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Maxwell Gaylard. Gaylard said the demolition figures represent a "dramatic" increase on previous years and that tens of thousands of people remain under threat of dispossession, demolition and displacement. Israel says it only demolishes structures that have been built without required permission. Palestinians say they are rarely granted permits. Gaylard said he went on Thursday to the village of Anata near Jerusalem where seven Palestinian homes were demolished this week.
Paths of freedom / Haaretz
The 70 years that have passed since Yossi Chen's childhood trauma added many chapters to the convoluted story of his life, but they didn't dull his memories. He shares them in his new autobiographical work, "The Light at the End of the Forest" (Moreshet Publishing House, in Hebrew ). Chen, a resident of Ramat Hasharon, was born in 1936 in Lakhva, Belarus. It was a small town of 6,000, a quarter of them Jews. In 1941, it fell to the Nazis. There were bigger and more famous ghettos than Lakhva. But one detail got this little ghetto into the history books. At the Holon cemetery, where special tombstones commemorate lost communities during the Holocaust, there's one for Lakhva. "Lakhva - First to Rebel," it says. The uprising there, on September 3, 1942, broke out seven months before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Germans planned to lead the ghetto's inhabitants to pits that had been dug nearby and shoot them. "First thing in the morning. the entire community stood in the narrow street, between two rows of wooden houses. The moment the Germans entered the ghetto the uprising began," Chen says, recalling the events he witnessed at age 6. In the first stage, the Jews set the ghetto on fire. Then Yitzhak Rochzyn, one of the leaders of the uprising, pounced on a German soldier and bashed his head in with an ax. Other Jews too, equipped with axes, shovels and logs, attacked soldiers. The young men of the ghetto took the wounded soldiers' guns and shot more Germans. "The Germans were taken by surprise and even scared. After all, they didn't expect any resistance. That moment was used to break through the fences and gate, and there was a mass escape," Chen says. "Under a barrage of bullets from rifles and machine guns, people began streaming through the fences and out of town." Around 600 of the 2,000 Jews in the ghetto managed to escape, but most were soon captured and killed. Others died fighting for partisan units or in the Red Army. Only about 100 veterans of the uprising survived. Chen is the youngest. While fleeing the ghetto he lost hold of his father's hand. He was alone but kept on running. He was later reunited with his father, but his mother, brother, grandfather and uncles were murdered.For the next two years Chen hid out in marshes and lived among the partisans in the Belarusian woods. At age 7, he practiced shooting for the first time. At the end of the war, the second key chapter of his life began: the escape from Europe. He came out of the forest with his father and returned to Lakhva. From there they moved to the big city nearby, Pinsk. Their next stop was Lodz in Poland, from where they moved on to the Czechoslovak border en route to Austria and Germany. In July 1947, after two years in displaced persons camps, they boarded the refugee ship Exodus, the symbol of Holocaust survivors who made their way to Israel. In the coming months, Chen, today 76 and a grandfather of nine, will return to the continent he escaped from in childhood; there he will take part in a new and unique docu-reality film. The film, "The Escape 3G," will try to reconstruct the routes used by Bericha, the clandestine Zionist movement that spirited Jews out of Europe. This chapter had its start late in the war, at the close of 1944, and ended in 1948, with the foundation of Israel. "This is an unparalleled story of adventure and suffering - a story of initiative, bravery, determination and cunning in which all means justify the end," Yohanan Cohen, one of the first emissaries from Mandatory Palestine to organize the escape from Poland, wrote in his book "Crossing Every Border." The Bericha people operated in a Europe suspended between past and future, without clear law and order. They discovered routes that let them wander between cities, forged transit papers, bribed soldiers at border crossings and showed extraordinary courage and improvisation. The creator of the new project is the film and television veteran Micha Shagrir, who last month received a lifetime achievement award from the Israel Film Academy. Shagrir's many credits include, as producer, the film "Betzeyt Israel" ("When Israel Went Out," 2010 ), in which a group of Israelis reconstruct Ethiopian Jews' journey to Israel in the 1980s. Now he's using the same concept to reconstruct a Jewish journey from another era, in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Ofot Hahol, which produces films about Holocaust survivors and the new lives they built. For the past few months, Shagrir's staff has been visiting schools across the country and auditioning candidates to choose eight youths between 16 and 18. After receiving training, they'll set out on the routes in Europe the Bericha movement used. "We're trying to address the Holocaust from a different point of view and conduct an experiment with a journey that will be both an educational field trip and a formative experience," Shagrir says. The participants will include an Israeli Arab girl, an Ethiopian boy, a girl from Lod whose parents emigrated from Russia, the daughter of migrant workers from Colombia, the son of a settler rabbi, and descendants of Bericha leaders. They'll experience the dilemmas faced by the people who took part in the escape. "Reality isn't a dirty word," Shagrir says. "We'll use the methods and language of reality television to create a new way of bequeathing the history of the Jewish people to the younger generations," he says. "Not only so they'll learn and understand what happened, but so they'll think about what's happening and what's going to happen." One of the teens is Itamar Konfino, 18, from Kochav Ya'ir. Konfino is the great-grandson of Enzo Sereni, who with other paratroopers from pre-state Israel was dropped into occupied Europe in 1944; the goal was to help Jews escape the Nazi terror. He was captured by the Germans and executed at Dachau. Kibbutz Netzer Sereni is named after him. His wife, Ada, who searched for him, was appointed commander of the clandestine immigration operation Aliyah Bet in Italy, which organized the escape's final stage: the transfer to Israel of tens-of-thousands of Jews on dozens of ships. "In the new film I realize I'll be able to experience what my great-grandfather and the other Jews went through after the Holocaust. It's fascinating," Konfino says. "As far as I'm concerned, the Holocaust proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they don't want us anywhere in the world and that Jews have no country except Israel. There's no other way." Next year he plans to join an elite military unit, "to contribute as much as possible." His cousin, Ariel Sereni, also passed the film's preliminary tryouts. He too is 18 and is due to join the Israel Defense Forces next year. Sereni, who was born in New York and studies theater at Ironi Alef High School in Tel Aviv, doesn't share his cousin's outlook. "After the visit to Auschwitz I began to have qualms about the military draft. I was horrified by what can be done with weapons," he says. "In general, my connection to Judaism is terribly small. My father is Christian. We celebrate, as secular people, both Christmas and Thanksgiving. Ultimately, the most important thing is to be humane." Another participant in the film is Nardin Elias, an 18-year-old Arab Israeli from Acre. "In contrast to Sereni's great-grandchildren, I don't have a familial or personal connection to the Holocaust. I'm an Arab. My family has lived here for generations upon generations," she says. "My family espouses humanistic values. They've taught me to be sensitive to other people's suffering. It was important to my mother that I know what befell the Jewish people and the wrong done to them. I can read about the Holocaust in books, but there's nothing like going to the places themselves to see the soil, feel it and touch it. I don't think this is something reserved only for Jews. It's a subject that ought to preoccupy everyone, first of all as a human being." When she decided to attend a Jewish school, where she is the sole Arab student, she realized that even these lofty values carry a price. "I suffered curses and physical and verbal abuse from Jewish students at the school, who didn't like the fact that an Arab girl was studying with them," Elias says. "But I don't regret this decision, because I changed the negative opinion some of them had about Arabs." Also, when she visited Auschwitz with a student delegation, not everyone looked kindly on it. "There were Jews who told me it was none of my business, even though all I was asking was to learn about the history of the Jewish people. But after I explained to them where it was coming from, they appreciated me," she says. "Just as I wanted to hear about how the Jews were wronged, I also wanted to know what my family went through in 1948," Elias adds. She talks about "the Jewish soldiers who broke into the village of Bi'ina during the war and arrested all the men." Among those arrested was her grandfather. Her grandmother "hid the small children and fled to Acre." While her classmates worked on family roots projects about the Holocaust, Elias wrote about the history of her family in 1948 - "not from a place of hatred, incitement and racism, but out of a sincere wish to know the roots," she says. The teens' journey will take them to Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Poland. The filmmakers are also using diaries and testimonies from people who were involved in the escape movement; the young people will meet with some of them. "Escape entailed heartrending moments that its hard not to be moved by," says director Alon Levi, as he gives an overview of peoples' memories of the escape organization. An episode he found especially moving is the pogrom in the Polish city of Kielce in July 1946, little more than a year after the war's end. Following a blood libel that a Polish boy had been kidnapped by Jews, Poles murdered 42 Jews and wounded scores more. "And then along comes one Jew, who was among the leaders of the Bericha movement, and with a pistol and papers from the United Nations rescues the wounded and brings them to safety, accompanied by a convoy of American tanks," Levi recounts. "That moment symbolizes the transition from passivity to activity. People who until a little while earlier were camp inmates suddenly showed unbelievable daring." Tal Barda, the film's producer, says, "it's not going to be a simple journey. The teens will pass through snowy mountains and along cliffs in impossible places - like the route the Jews covered in the Bericha movement - to try to understand what they went through." But the physical journey will be the easy part. "They will undergo a very personal, serious journey, and the dynamic that forms will be a central part of the film," she says. "We want to know how teenagers in today's Israel connect to the Holocaust and remembrance. We'll show them other things and open up students' minds in different directions. Yes, to help them undergo change you need to be provocative. In a way, we're offering an alternative to the trips to Poland."
More than 100 people killed by security forces across Syria
Security forces killed more than 100 people across Syria on Friday, one of the deadliest days in the more-than-10-month uprising that appears to be developing into a civil war. The dramatic surge in violence occurred as the United Nations Security Council prepared for a meeting to discuss the Syrian crisis. Arab media reported that the Arab League and Western powers were working on a resolution to stop the bloodshed. Russia, which along with China vetoed a resolution that threatened sanctions against Syria in October, said it would oppose any new resolution that calls for President Bashar Assad to step down. Activists in Syria said security forces backed by tanks and mortars had launched operations in the central cities of Hama and Homs, as well as the northern rebel stronghold of Idlib. Some 44 people were killed when soldiers stormed the neighborhood of Al Hamidiyeh in Hama, the site of a 1982 massacre by government forces sent in to crush an uprising by the Sunni Muslim majority against the Alawite minority rule of the al-Assad family. "Tanks are attacking the city from four directions. They are firing their heavy machine guns randomly," activist Abu Omar told DPA by phone as bursts of automatic gun fire crackled in the background. He said bodies lay uncollected in the streets and hospitals were desperately in need of blood transfusions for the wounded. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said attacks by the rebel army killed 12 security forces - six in a car bomb in Idlib and another six in an ambush in the southern town of Daraa. Homs activist Omar Homsi said 18 people were killed in the city, when Syrian security forces opened fire upon a crowd leaving the mosque after Friday prayer. In Syria's second largest city of Aleppo, which has been relatively calm since the protests erupted in March, activists reported that nine people were killed when security forces fired at protesters. Activists in an area near the capital, Damascus, reported that Syrian forces killed 21 people. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Thursday that the world body could no longer keep track of the death toll in Syria due to the escalating violence. The Arab League is referring the Syrian crisis to the United Nations after a peace mission it sent to Syria last month failed to stop the violence and was accused of providing a political cover for the government to continue its crackdown. Gulf countries withdrew their observers from Syria this week in protest at the government's failure to stop the violence. The head of the Arab League mission said on Friday that violence had "escalated dramatically" over the last three days. "The current violence does not help to create conditions to pave the way for a dialogue," Sudanese General Mohamed al-Dabi said in a statement released by the Arab League. A report by Al-Dabi at the end of his one-month mission was criticized by the Syrian opposition as favoring the government. Russia clearly indicated on Friday that it was ready to block any UN Security Council resolution calling on al-Assad to leave power. "Any decision about the future resolution of the situation in Syria should be put into motion without conditions, and a demand that Syrian President Bashar Assad leave power is one such condition," said Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov. "We cannot support such a resolution," he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
DM Barak calls on world to stop Iranian nuclear threat
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday warned that nuclear weapons in the hands of the Iranian regime would lead to regional proliferation, the spread of terrorism and a threat to oil supplies from the Middle East, UK daily The Guardian reported. Speaking as part of a panel on Iran at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Barak told those assembled that "you can't conceive of a stable world order when Iran has nuclear weapons." Barak, appearing alongside Yukiya Amano, the chief of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, stated that "Iran is prepared to defy and deceive the whole world to turn themselves into a nuclear power," according to The Guardian. "This will be the end of any conceivable anti-proliferation program. Major powers in the region will feel compelled to turn nuclear," he added, listing Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt as countries who would be compelled to enter the nuclear arms race should Iran acquire an atomic bomb. The defense minister accused Iran of trying to intimidate its neighbors in the Gulf in order to gain hegemony over oil resources in the region. "It is the time for much tougher diplomacy and sanctions because there is a risk not just to Israel but to the whole world. It will be much more complicated, much more dangerous and much more costly if we allow it to happen," The Guardian quoted Barak as saying. Amano said that he was sending an International Atomic Energy Agency team to Iran on Saturday and that he was convinced Tehran was seeking nuclear weapons capability. "Our information is credible. Iran is engaged in activities relevant to the development of nuclear explosives. We have asked for talks and we are meeting with them," Amano stated.
PA officials: Israeli border proposal a non-starter
Palestinian officials said Friday that Israel's presentation of its ideas for border and security arrangements of a future Palestinian state at a meeting in Amman on Wednesday was a non-starter, envisaging a fenced-off territory of cantons that would preserve most Jewish settlements. Israel's envoy to the talks, Yitzhak Molcho, outlined Wednesday night for the Palestinians the principles and parameters that will guide Israel's policy on border issues, an Israeli government official said. According to the official, Molcho did not draw a line on a map, but rather spoke in general principles about what Israel would take into consideration when drawing that line. "He killed the two-state solution, set aside previous agreements and international law," said a Palestinian Liberation Organization source of Molcho's presentation. "Basically, the Israeli idea of a Palestinian state is made up of a wall and settlements." An Israeli official said the presentation was in line with a framework for talks set by the Quartet -- the United States, European union, Russia and the United Nations. Its aim is to ensure that the core issues of borders and security were clearly set out by Jan. 26, with the goal of relaunching negotiations stalled since November 2010, to reach a framework peace accord by the end of this year. After five rounds of talks in Jordan, including Wednesday's session, the Palestinian source said there are no more meetings scheduled. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said he wants to consult Arab League states on the next move. According to the Palestinian source, Molcho's team suggested that any solution creating a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel needs to "preserve the social and economic fabric of all communities, Jewish or Palestinian." The idea presented by Molcho "does not include Jerusalem and the Jordan valley, and includes almost all (Jewish) settlements," the Palestinian official said. An Israeli official said Molcho presented guiding principles that determine Israel's positions on the territorial issue. Israel's approach to territorial compromise in the West Bank includes the principal that "most Israelis will be under Israeli sovereignty and obviously most Palestinians will be under Palestinian sovereignty", the official said. He noted that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had acknowledged, in a speech to the United States Congress, that not all Jewish settlements "will be on our side of the border" of a future Palestinian state. "We think it is very important that these talks continue. They are only at a preliminary stage, but they contain potential and obviously in less than a month it would have been illogical to talk about a breakthough," he said. "But in many ways the talks are progressing better than expected and it would indeed be a pity to bring about a premature ending of this process." Palestinians dispute this. "The Israelis brought nothing new in these meetings," said one official familiar with the talks. Peace negotiations foundered in late 2010 over a Palestinian demand that Israel suspend settlement building in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.
Dempsey: US, Israel view Iran threat very differently
The United State and Israel view the Iranian nuclear threat very differently, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. In an interview with the National Journal, published Thursday: (Premature' to Use Military Force Against Iran) , the US army chief said, "We have to acknowledge that they ... see that threat differently than we do. It's existential to them."
Dempsey, who visited Israel last week for talks with senior military and political officials, was quoted by the weekly as saying he and the Israelis each argued their positions "aggressively," but conceded that the close allies simply see the threat - and potentially how soon to act against it - very differently. "My intervention with them was not to try to persuade them to my thinking or allow them to persuade me to theirs, but rather to acknowledge the complexity and commit to seeking creative solutions, not simple solutions," he told the National Journal. In the interview, Dempsey said the army supported the Obama administration's determination to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon by any means necessary, but cautioned that using force should be a last resort. "We are determined to prevent them from acquiring that weapon, but that doesn't mean dropping bombs necessarily," he said. "I personally believe that we should be in the business of deterring as the first priority," he said. However, Dempsey added that Washington was increasing its economic and diplomatic pressure on Tehran while making preparations - if there was no other option - for possible military intervention in the Islamic Republic. He claimed economic and diplomatic pressure is beginning to show results and it would be "premature" to resort to military force. "I do think the path we're on—the economic sanctions and the diplomatic pressure—does seem to me to be having an effect," Dempsey said. "I just think that it's premature to be deciding that the economic and diplomatic approach is inadequate." He added: "A conflict with Iran would be really destabilizing, and I'm not just talking from the security perspective. It would be economically destabilizing."
Israel presents the Palestinians with its stance on borders
Israel presented the Palestinians with its position on borders for a future Palestinian state for the first time on Wednesday, meeting the January 26 deadline set by the Mideast Quartet in September. Officials told Haaretz that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's envoy, Isaac Molho, presented chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat with Israel's position on borders, but did not give Erekat a document on the matter. Molho's presentation included a series of basic principles, without any maps or percentages of lands slotted to be swapped. One of the principles that Molho presented was that in any permanent agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, most of the Israelis who live in the West Bank will remain in Israeli territory, while the Palestinians in the West Bank will be in the area allotted for a future Palestinian state. Erekat asked Molho for clarifications on his presentation, and Molho told Erekat that he is ready to provide him with answers as soon as possible and to set an additional meeting in the next few days. In the last meeting between the two, that took place last Saturday, the Palestinians refused to let a senior Israeli officer present the Israeli position on security arrangements. On Wednesday's meeting, Molho told Erekat that Israel will be happy to present its stance on security arrangements in their next meeting, after it had already laid out some of its position on borders, as per the Palestinians' request. A senior Israeli official involved in the talks said that even though Molho's presentation was preliminary, he did present fundamental principles. Molho's presentation on borders marks the first time that the Netanyahu government agreed to discuss the territorial issue. However, at this stage, the move is most probably solely a tactical one, meant to pressure the Palestinians and make it harder for them to blame Israel for the collapse of the talks. On Wednesday, before the meeting between Molho and Erekat, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the talks with Israel end with no results. And even after the meeting, the Palestinians said the meeting brought no new breakthrough and said that in the next few days they will reassess the situation with Arab countries and decide whether to continue the talks. Meanwhile, intensive international efforts to prevent the failure of Israeli-Palestinian talks in Jordan are continuing. In a phone conversation on Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Netanyahu that she is very worried that the talks will be broken off. A statement from Merkel's office said, "She called on the Israeli Prime Minister to do all he could from his side so that the current process could continue." "In this context, she informed Netanyahu about Palestinian President Abbas' visit to Berlin last week. She said she had also called on Abbas not to let the current talks come to an end," the statement said. Victoria Nuland, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, said on Thursday the talks had been helpful for both sides. “They have clarified some issues. There are some things that they need to work on at home on both sides. And that perhaps a small pause, and then to come back with some fresh ideas will be helpful,” she said.
Peres: Iran is greatest threat to Mideast peace
President Shimon Peres voiced hope on Thursday that progress could be achieved soon in Israeli- Palestinian negotiations, saying peace might come “sooner than we think.” Peres and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad offered contrasting views of the peace process at the World Economic Forum in Davos, after the latest round of preliminary talks between the sides concluded in Amman. "In the negotiations the gap was seriously narrowed, and neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis have any choice but to make peace,” Peres said. “We need a bouquet of agreements, which won’t cover all the issues, to enable the Palestinians and Israel to keep open the negotiations. I believe if we negotiate, peace will come maybe sooner than we think.” A more downbeat Fayyad said at the forum the peace process “has never been this lacking in focus,” and the “conditions are actually not right, or ripe, for the resumption of the political process.” “Right now, one would have to work really hard to be hopeful,” said Fayyad. Israel’s envoy to the talks in Jordan, Yitzhak Molcho, outlined Wednesday night for the Palestinians the principles and parameters that will guide Israel’s policy on border issues, an Israeli government official said on Thursday. According to the official, Molcho did not draw a line on a map, but rather spoke in general principles about what Israel would take into consideration when drawing that line. Israel’s presentation of the principles guiding its thinking on the border issues follows a similar presentation Israel gave the Palestinians Saturday night in Amman outlining the principles guiding its thinking on security issues. Under the Quartet formula drawn up on September 23 for bringing the sides to the negotiating table, both Israel and the Palestinians were to present each other with comprehensive proposals on those two issues within 90 days. According to the Palestinians, that 90-day period expired on Thursday, while Israel – which believes that the period did not start until direct talks began in Amman earlier this month – that period does not end until the beginning of April. In an apparent effort to preempt Palestinian claims that Israel refuses to deal with the border issue, the official said Israel “is dealing with the issues that the Quartet believes are important.” He said that both sides asked for clarification from the other regarding issues that were raised. “Israel’s position remains that within the framework of a peace process moving forward, we are ready for mutual confidence measures. But the talks must be without preconditions.” One of the steps the Palestinians are asking for is a release of Fatah prisoners held in Israeli jails. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has made clear that one of the steps he expects from the Palestinian side is an end to incitement within the Palestinian Authority. The official said that the current talks in Amman are indeed in a preliminary stage, and that Israel’s position is that it was important to “let the talks reach fruition, and not cut them off early.” “Israel remains committed to the Quartet framework,” the official said. “It is ready to move forward according to its timetable, and is ready for substantive talks on core issues. We hope this is not stifled at the very beginning.” No date for another round of talks was set after Wednesday night’s meeting. The Quartet has set the end of 2012 as a deadline for reaching an agreement. The official acknowledged that the sides were talking about gestures they could make to each other to improve the atmosphere. Netanyahu spoke by phone Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, thanking her for supporting the ratcheting up of EU sanctions against Iran earlier this week. He has already held similar conversations over the last few days with British Prime Minister David Cameron and with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Israeli officials said that Europe very much wants to see the Amman talks continue, and that Merkel is expected to relay this message to PA President Mahmoud Abbas in the coming days. Fayyad, an economist who previously worked for the International Monetary Fund, said the international community was needed as a mediator in the process, and should also be providing the Palestinian Authority with more resources in its statebuilding efforts. Fayyad placed the ball firmly in Israel’s court, blaming the lack of progress on its military incursions into areas under PA control and restrictions on Palestinian movement in the rest of the West Bank that remains under Israeli control. Given those actions, and 18 years after the Oslo peace process was launched, it is unclear what Peres means by his support for a two-state solution, Fayyad said. “What kind of state does he have in mind when he says ‘Palestinian state’?” he asked. “To be clear about what we mean by that: We are looking for an independent, viable state of Palestine on the territories occupied in 1967,” added Fayyad.
