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2011年4月21日星期四

The winners of the prize Israel peace offers - BBC News

April 20, 2011, update at 16: 52 GMT Cranes in Gilo, East Jerusalem Israeli settlement building has sabotaged the peace talks, dozens of artists and Israeli intellectuals signed a petition for a Palestinian State based on the 1967 borders and to put an end to the occupation.

The signatories include 16 winners of the prize Israel, more high civil distinction of the country. Among them are pioneer Shulamit Aloni, historian Yehuda Bauer and sculptor Dani Karavan rights.

The petition also supports the Palestinian drive for recognition by the United Nations, in the absence of progress in the peace talks.

Israel opposes any unilateral decision.

The release, on Wednesday, calls for a pullout of Israeli in the West Bank, where institutions and in the region that they take cover 40% of the territory.

"The complete end of occupation is a fundamental condition for the freedom of the two peoples," she says.

Two-State solution

The winners of the scheme sign the petition - also inked by dozens other Israeli artists and intellectuals - Thursday opposite the building where the State of Israel was proclaimed in May 1948.

Earlier this month, a group of Israel former security chiefs and business leaders also presented a proposal - called the Israeli Peace Initiative - to revive the impasse of the peace talks with the Palestinians.

Shots come to Palestinian plans to ask the General Assembly of the United Nations to recognize an independent Palestinian State within the borders that existed before the beginning of the 1967 Six day war. It is the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed in principle to a two-State solution. However, both parties are far from agreement on most key issues.

U.S. - sponsored talks collapsed in the weeks following their launch in September in a dispute on colonization in the occupied West Bank continues.

About 500,000 Jews live in settlements on the occupied territory. Settlements are illegal under international law, although Israel does this.


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2011年4月19日星期二

Israel under pressure to offer peace plan - Los Angeles Times

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Benjamin Netanyahu Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, talks to Israeli soldiers during a visit to Ashkelon, where an Iron Dome missile defense system is deployed. (Ariel Schalit, Associated Press / April 19, 2011)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to unveil a new plan for solving the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict or risk having the U.S. and international community move ahead with a strategy of their own.

Israel won some breathing space with the postponement last week of a meeting of international powers in Berlin, but American and European Oxford are continuing to prod Netanyahu to lay out his vision for restarting peace talks and ending the occupation of the West Bank. If he does not, Oxford warned, the so-called Mideast quartet--the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - may attempt to jump-start the process by formally endorsing, for the first time, the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borderswith East Jerusalem as its capital. Netanyahu's government has vehemently opposed such a move.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signaled last week that international patience over the stalled peace process was growing thin and that the recent Arab world unrest made a resolution of the conflict more pressing. She promised "active American leadership" and a reinvigorated U.S. approach that would be announced in coming weeks.

"The status quo between Palestinians and Israelis is no more sustainable than the political systems that have crumbled in recent months," Clinton told an audience at the U.S. - Islamic World Forum in Washington. Some viewed the statement as a signal to Netanyahu to move quickly with his own plan.

"the israelis are facing a bit of pressure with the way things are proceeding," said a Western diplomat in Israel, who did not want to be identified while speaking about the sensitive matter. "People are starting to look to the U.S. for some kind of action."

Netanyahu's conservative government formally endorsed a two - state solution at the start of his term two years ago, but U.S. - brokered peace talks later collapsed when Israel resumed settlement construction in the West Bank and the Palestinians walked away from negotiations in protest.

Netanyahu has been hinting that he plans to announce a bold initiative by May, when he is expected to visit the U.S. and may unveil his proposal during a speech to Congress. But his Cabinet, which includes right-wing parties opposed to ceding land for peace, appears divided.

Last month, Israeli government aid floated the idea of an interim peace plan with temporary borders, but the Palestinians rejected it. Now Netanyahu is considering handing the Palestinian Authority more control over some areas in the West Bank or calling for an international conference aimed at restarting talks.

In a speech to European Union envoys last week, Netanyahu offered no. clues. "I have not decided what to say, and when to say it," the prime minister reportedly told the group. On Thursday, Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, saying he would not succumb to outside pressure. "we will stand firm against anyone who attempts to dictate conditions to us that will leave us without security and without peace."

Government spokesman Mark Regev said the international community should be holding the Palestinians more responsible for the breakdown in talks.

"In some circles there is an automatic knee-jerk siding with the Palestinian position, and it makes Palestinians think they have a free pass," Regev said. "people are inadvertently hurting the peace process." "If there were a serious message from the international community that the time has come to return to negotiations, there would be a much better chance at negotiations."

Moderate members of Netanyahu's Likud Party are urging the prime minister to sixteen the moment by offering a fresh approach.

"We should take an initiative," said Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor. "time passing is not helping."

President Obama has said he wants to welcome a Palestinian state into the U.N. in September. Not coincidentally, that's also when the Palestinians are promising to take their statehood bid to the U.N. General Assembly, which most predict will approve it.

Though such a step may not change the reality in the Middle East, it would create momentum that many Israelis fear would reduce their leverage at future negotiations over borders and security guarantees.

Palestinian officials expressed disappointment at the delay in this month's quartet meeting. Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called the decision regrettable.

U.N. and EU representatives were hoping to use the meeting to push for a quartet statement endorsing the pre-1967 war borders, with agreed-upon swaps, as a basis for future talks. But U.S. officials argued for a delay, saying they first wanted a guarantee from the Palestinians that if such a statement were released, they would return to the negotiating table. The U.S. also worried that the move might lead to boycott talks Israel.

The Palestinians gave no clear indication that a quartet statement would be enough to persuade them to resume talks, officials said. Some Palestinian leaders are insisting that Israel must also agree to halt all settlement construction on land it seized during the 1967 Middle East War.

"Why should the quartet go out on a limb when there is no hard and fast insurance that the Palestinians would return to the table?" the Western diplomat in Israel said.

Public skepticism about peace talks among Palestinians has only hardened in recent months, with most urging Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to boycott the process unless Israeli settlement construction is halted, according to Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki.

"If he returns to talks, he makes the public very angry," Shikaki said. "my conclusion is he will not."

Palestinian leaders are nonetheless increasingly confidant that their September statehood strategy is gaining steam. At an international donors conference in Brussels last week to aid the Palestinians, a U.N. report was released that praised Palestinian Authority institutions dealing with finance, law, education and infrastructure as being ready for statehood. But U.N. officials worry that progress could stall if a peace deal is not reached soon.

Israel staunchly opposed U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, saying the Palestinians are trying to avoid the difficult decisions that should be made at the negotiating table.

Israeli analysts say Netanyahu's alternative plan, if he announces one, would need to be ambitious and detailed enough to rival the Palestinians' initiative. U.S. and European officials are pushing Netanyahu to formally embrace using the 1967 borders as a basis for talks, as some of his predecessors have done, and agree to East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.

Opposition leaders expressed doubt that Netanyahu's coalition would be able to overcome its differences to propose such a plan.

"I don't see in the current government a political plan for moving forward," said lawmaker Shaul Mofaz of the opposition Kadima party. Yet, he added, "a do-nothing policy is very dangerous for the future of Israel."

Edmund.Sanders@LATimes.com


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2011年4月12日星期二

Libya rebels reject peace plan - Times of India

BENGHAZI: Mustafa Abdul Jalil Monday the Libyan leader of the rebels rejected an initiative African Union for a ceasefire with the forces of Muammar al-Gaddafi and demanded the eviction of veteran strongman. "This initiative (African Union) has now been exceeded." As soon as "the first day that the application of our people was the eviction of Gaddafi and the fall of his regime, Abdul Jalil told a press conference of Benghazi held the rebels."

"Gaddafi and his sons must leave immediately if they want to be safe...". Any initiative which does not include the popular demand, the popular demand, application key, we can possibly recognize. "Abdul Jalil refused any sort of mediation which would allow Gaddafi stay and invective against the strong man. "We cannot negotiate with the blood of our matryrs." "We are going to die with them or become victorious and of God, will we will be victorious,", said the rebel leader.

Jalili remarks came after discussions with a delegation of African heads of State of Benghazi Monday, a day after Gaddafi has accepted the peace proposal. The President of South Africa Jacob Zuma, said that Tripoli had accepted the plan of the African Union for a ceasefire that would stop the NATO bombing campaign.

About 200 people waving rebel flags gathered outside the airport, Benghazi, arrival of the delegation to the, to welcome his efforts, but demanding the overthrow of Kadhafi.

In Ajdabiya, a correspondent saw more than a dozen burned trucks that pro-Gaddafi fighters were equipped with heavy machine guns for their offensive failed on the front between eastern line held of rebels and Government-held West.

Many of the bodies that rebel fighters buried near battlefield on the outskirts of the city were charred beyond recognition after a NATO strike, combined with their own efforts to push the loyalist assault. We found 35 bodies, with two more melted in the vehicles,"said a rebel fighter. AFP


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2011年4月6日星期三

The Israeli leaders, public figures announce peace proposal - BusinessWeek

06 April 2011, 11: 06 am EDT by Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger

(Updates with the citation of Perry in the third paragraph, fifth analyst).

April 6 (Bloomberg) - leaders of Israeli companies and public figures, including former heads of Shin Bet and Mossad intelligence agencies, proposed a regional peace plan, saying: it was essential that the Government revive the negotiations.The proposal provides for the establishment of statehood in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and sets out a framework for Jerusalem that would allow the city to be a capital to the Palestinians and Israelis. It includes a plan for peace with the Syria and Lebanon.Israel "is no longer a privilege to sit around doing nothing", Jacob Perry, former Director of the internal security service Shin Bet said at a press conference in Tel Aviv today. "The Government of Israel and its leader must take the initiative."Palestinian officials have said they are preparing to seek the recognition of the State of the General Assembly of the United Nations in September, regardless of the question of whether the peace talks are to move forward. The proposal also comes as a wave of sweeping movements pro-democracy throughout the Arab world, which has already led to the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who have often served as mediator between Israel and the Palestinians. "" Current silence is demanding a diplomatic price to Israel that he cannot continue to pay, "said Jonathan Spyer, political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel. "This initiative is the move of the opening of a public pressure campaign to put Netanyahu on the spot to get a proposal of its own on the table."Increased UrgencyU.S. President Barack Obama said yesterday that Mideast turmoil increases the urgency for a peace agreement between Israel and peace talks .israeli-Palestinian Palestinians collapsed one month last year. Chairman of the authority Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas said that he would not continue negotiations negotiated in the U.S. unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended a freeze on 10 months on the construction of the colony, a condition the Israeli leader rejected.Netanyahu spokesman, Mark Regev, has refused to comment on plan today. Members of the group said Netanyahu, who has said that a Palestinian State should only through a negotiated peace agreement, he received a copy of the initiative. "This is the kind of program Netanyahu is extremely unlikely that to accept,"said Spyer. "It is impossible that he would accept it before of negotiations".Not OfficialPalestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh said that, while each peace initiative should be encouraged, that one is official. "This comes at a time when the Israeli Government has no initiative whatsoever,"Shtayyeh said in an interview on the phone. "The Israelis must sign this initiative."The Israel Peace Initiative, as it is called the plan, is encouraged by Perry. former Chief of the Mossad, Danny Yatom. former Lieutenant-General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, the former military Chief of staff; and Idan Ofer, shareholder and former President of Israel Corp., a holding company with interests in shipping, chemicals and loading stations for electric cars.Plan for Israel calls accept as a framework for negotiations, the Arab initiative of 2002 proposing peace between Israel and the Arabs countries once that Israel withdraws from land captured in the 1967 Middle East war. These territories include the Golan Heights and West Bank.Ofer said that in business abroad "he was clearly me more than once that if here, the situation is not improving, Israeli companies employing thousands of people will be injured."Netanyahu remains today in Berlin, where he will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss efforts to revive peace talks.

-With the help of Tanya Habjouqa in Jerusalem. Editors: Heather Langan, Louis Meixler.

To contact the reporters on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Tel-Aviv to gackerman@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv to jferziger@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew j. Barden at barden@bloomberg.


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