Palestinians rebuff Clinton bid to relaunch peace talks

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The Palestinian Authority on Saturday rejected a proposal by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for the renewal of peace negotiations with Israel, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

Clinton's proposal was for the final-status talks to be relaunched on the basis of understandings over West Bank settlement construction reached between U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy, George Mitchell, and the Israeli government, according to Erakat.

He said the Palestinians rejected the offer during a meeting in Abu Dabi between Clinton and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

At a news conference after the meeting, Abbas said he told Clinton there would be no new negotiations unless Israel froze settlement building, Israel Radio reported.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124825.html

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1. They stick to their guns. Literally.

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2. Since when has the PA gone back to violence?

Abbas' stance may or may not be a good idea, but be fair. The PA and Fatah haven't been the ones pushing violence.

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3. Palestinian anger as Hillary Clinton praises 'settlement concessions'

The Palestinian leadership today accused the United States of “back-peddling” on the key issue of Israeli settlement growth in the West Bank after Hillary Clinton, the visiting Secretary of State, suddenly praised Israel’s prime minister for making “unprecedented” concessions on the issue.

"The negotiations are in a state of paralysis and the result of Israel's intransigence and America's back-peddling is that there is no hope of negotiations on the horizon," said Nabil Abu Rudeinah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Having signally failed to force Israel to meet US demands for a total settlement freeze, Mrs Clinton abruptly switched tack during a one-day visit to Jerusalem this weekend when she called on both sides to swiftly resume long-stalled peace talks.

"What the prime minister has offered in specifics of a restraint on the policy of settlements... is unprecedented," Clinton said. Even under the hopeful days of the Oslo peace talks in the 1990s, Israel never halted the expansion of the large settlement community, which only suffered its first serious reversal in 2005, when then prime minister Ariel Sharon forced thousands of settlers to leave the Gaza Strip.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6898430.ece