Chaim Levinson; 2/12/09; (2 Items)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that a 10-month freeze of new construction in West Bank settlements was only a “one-time, temporary” move, in an apparent bid to ease settlers’ fears. “We shall resume building once the moratorium is over,” Netanyahu told a conference organised by the financial newspaper Calcalist. “The future final-status accord in Judea and Samaria will be determined at the end of negotiations – and not a day earlier,” he said.
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1131965.html; Ban ‘dismayed’ at East Jerusalem eviction of Palestinian family; 2/12/09; http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1131985.html; How does the U.S. help fund pro-settler IDF troops? Akiva Eldar and Chaim Levinson; http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1131923.html
Jordanians share Palestinian despair on peace
Alistair Lyon; 2/12/09
Outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip, despair at the failure of years of US-led Middle East peacemaking is perhaps felt nowhere more keenly than in Jordan. “The Palestinians are cornered,” said Taher Al Masri, a former Jordanian prime minister of Palestinian origin who is now deputy speaker of the Kingdom’s Upper House of Parliament. “They have to look for alternatives other than just calling for negotiations. It doesn’t mean they have to go to war, but depending on the good faith of the Americans or Europeans or on a positive Israeli response has ended now,” he added. Jordan, a small country with many Palestinians among its six million people, has for years hitched itself to Washington in the hope that its US ally would one day cajole Israel into accepting Arab demands for an end to occupation and the emergence of a Palestinian state in exchange for peace.
See: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=21984; Does Jordan have an option?; Hassan A. Barari; http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=21970
Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Settlers, USA