Israeli diplomatic officials say chances of a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas by this weekend are low • U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry: Time is the enemy of the peace process.
Mati Tuchfeld, Daniel Siryoti, Yori Yalon, Yoni Hirsch, Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies
In a continuation of his efforts to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive in Israel on Thursday and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to Israeli diplomatic officials, a meeting between Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has yet to be scheduled. They said the chances were low that such a meeting would take place by this weekend, refuting rumors of an imminent Netanyahu-Abbas meeting in Amman.
Kerry, who held separate talks with both sides in May, said Netanyahu and Abbas both wanted the peace process to move forward.
"I believe they believe the peace process is bigger than any one day or one moment, or certainly more important to their countries than some of their current political challenges," Kerry told a news conference in Kuwait with Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah.
"That is why both of them have indicated a seriousness of purpose. I would not be here now if I didn't have the belief this is possible," he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres both said on Thursday that Israel was interested in the two-state solution and not a bi-national state.
As hundreds gathered Thursday at a ceremony commemorating the 109th anniversary of the death of the father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, in Jerusalem, Peres declared that "a bi-national state goes against Herzl's vision."
"The existence of a bi-national state would jeopardize the Jewish and democratic character of the State of Israel," Peres told the crowd, adding that Herzl's vision had spoken of a state for the Jews, not just a Jewish state. Historical rights alone are not enough to establish a diplomatic reality, Peres said.
We have an opportunity to renew the peace process, and we must not miss it," Peres urged, welcoming Kerry to Israel. "Unfortunately, Herzl's hopes have not been fulfilled. They will only be fulfilled through the power of justice and in a path of peace."
"Herzl realized that there is no other solution for the Jews besides the establishment of a Jewish state. Doing nothing is not a solution and therefore the Zionist solution must be bold, all-inclusive and unprecedented," he added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed Peres' sentiments at the ceremony, condemning the notion of a bi-national state and saying that "we want peace because we want to live in peace."
We don't want a bi-national state, but let us not delude ourselves into thinking that if we strike an agreement with the Palestinians it will end the wild denigration of the Jewish state," the prime minister warned.
"Peace is founded on security, not goodwill. Without security we will not be able to defend ourselves and any peace we have will unravel. I think that most of Israel's citizens understand that, and I believe that Herzl understood it well, and we remain faithful to his vision," he said.
'What was the lot of Jews for generation upon generation is now the lot of the Jewish state," Netanyahu said.
"We remain faithful to Herzl's vision: to establish here an exemplary state, a modern state, a state that is rooted in our land, the Land of Israel, but also a state that above all is able to give the Jews what was lost to them in their years of exile – the ability to defend themselves, by themselves, against any threat," the prime minister said.
Netanyahu's comments against a bi-national state is significant as it comes against the backdrop of an increasing number of Likud MKs and ministers saying they are against the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"Herzl did not believe that the Jews' contribution to humanity – tikkun olam (reparation of the world), something we all want to see – would serve to abate anti-Semitism. He did not believe that this thing would protect the Jews from the prejudiced hatred that had been cultivated for 2,500 years, since the Hellenistic period. A hatred that is ready to believe anything about the Jews, including about the greatest of humanity's individuals, the greatest people in the world," Netanyahu said.
"Herzl had a one solution. Like Mark Twain, he believed that returning the Jews to their land (as Twain remarked during his trip here in 1869), that if only the Jews were to return to this land, it would be revived, in large numbers of course. But this is where Herzl's vision departs from Twain, who believed that the Jews would emerge victorious in any situation and under any circumstances. Herzl was more cautious – much more cautious. He said: 'a people cannot be delivered by anyone except themselves, and the Jews' problem can only be resolved by the Jews.' He therefore demanded the right and the sovereignty that we can defend with our Jewish army. Why do we need an army? He understood very well why, even though he was considered crazy for demanding a Jewish army at the end of the 19th century. He understood very well that there would be a battle here."
"There is an [annual] poll conducted by the BBC to determine which country had the most positive impact on humanity [that year], and which country had the most negative impact on humanity. Israel was included in the poll in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 and to this day features at the bottom of list, together with Iran. And it doesn't matter what we do, and it doesn't matter what we contribute. It doesn't matter because [the poll] is not about facts.
"The tarnishing of Israel, the description of us as rejecters of peace, as pursuers of war, as a dark state that aspires to conquest, rather than as an enlightened state that fights like no other democracy in the world, a state that fights like no other state in the world in the most enlightened way imaginable against the desires to destroy it. All the charges against us are overdone, exaggerated and absurd, but they still take hold."
Meanwhile, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday that "the Jews just want to destroy Al-Aqsa and build a temple." However, in an Al-Jazeera interview, Abbas did not mention a settlement construction freeze as a precondition for renewing negotiations with Israel.
Speaking in Kuwait on Wednesday, Kerry talked about the urgency of restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, saying, "The time is getting near where we need to make some judgments."
"Long before September we need to be showing some kind of progress in some way because I don't think we have the luxury of that kind of time," Kerry said. "Time is the enemy of a peace process. The passage of time allows a vacuum to be filled by people who don't want things to happen."
Kerry declined, however, to set an explicit deadline.
"I don't want to trap myself or any of the principals in this with arbitrary or somewhat ad hoc time limits," he said.
Later on Wednesday, Kerry visited Jordan. He is on his fifth visit to the region since becoming secretary of state in February.
Also on Wednesday, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved construction permits for 69 new housing units in Jerusalem's Har Homa neighborhood, which is across the Green Line.
Brachie Sprung, spokeswoman for the Jerusalem municipality, said the project in Har Homa was approved long ago and that Wednesday's decision granted final permits for construction to actually begin.
She noted that the committee also approved 22 new homes in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem on Wednesday.
In a statement, the municipality said the construction was part of a master plan to ease a housing crunch faced by all city residents.
"There is no change in the municipality's policy of the last 40 years. We continue to build in all of the city's neighborhoods according to a master plan. In the next few years, tens of thousands of residential units are expected to be built throughout the city for all ethnic groups," it said.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the move.
"Such behavior proves that the Israeli government is determined to undermine Secretary Kerry's efforts at every level," he said.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Kerry was "very focused" on getting talks back on track.
"He's going to go take stock with these leaders and see if some of the hard decisions have been made," Ventrell said.
Meanwhile, the IDF detained 19 Palestinians across the West Bank overnight Wednesday as clashes broke out in the Beit Ummar village in the southern West Bank district of Hebron following the detentions, the Palestinian Maan News Agency reported.
The IDF seized a large cache of illegal weapons overnight Wednesday discovered in the homes of terror suspects in Nablus, the army said.
Among the weapons seized were handguns, M-16 assault rifle parts, dozens of magazines and a large variety of ammunition and military equipment. Three suspects were arrested in connection with the weapons and transferred to security forces for questioning.
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Thursday, June 27, 2013
Netanyahu: Without security, any peace we have will unravel
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