VP Biden and PM Netanyahu in Jerusalem (AP)
Vice President Joe Biden today ended the highest-level official U.S. visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by the Obama administration and departed to Jordan where he will be meeting with King Abdullah.
In a speech at Tel Aviv University, Biden spoke of the “unbreakable bond” between Israel and the United States that is “impervious to any shifts in either country and either country’s partisan politics.” He said that “the United States is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Period.” He also emphasized that peace talks must continue and condemned “immediately and unequivocally" Israel’s announcement on Tuesday of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, which came one day after Senator George Mitchell announced the beginning proximity talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed regret to Biden over the Israeli Interior Ministry’s announcement about the new units and urged Interior Minister Eli Yishai to apologize for causing embarrassment. Cabinet officials nevertheless stressed that Israel would go ahead with the construction plan as the settlement moratorium does not apply to Jerusalem.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in response notified the Arab League yesterday that the Palestinians decline to enter indirect talks unless the planned building is canceled. The status of the talks remains unclear.
Below are some pieces looking at Biden’s visit.
Israeli Housing Push Hits Peace Moves
by Tobias Buck and Daniel Dombey (Financial Times)
Israel on Tuesday revealed plans to build a further 1,600 housing units in a Jewish settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, a move Washington was quick to condemn for its impact on U.S.-backed peace talks. The Israeli decision coincided with a visit by Joe Biden, the U.S. vice-president and the country’s most senior official to travel to Israel since Barack Obama took office last year. It also came a day after the Palestinian Authority dropped opposition to a new round of indirect peace talks with Israel—a promise that may be in doubt.
“The substance and timing of the announcement … is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now,” Mr. Biden said in condemning Israel’s move. “We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them.” Access the full article>>
Biden Says Israel, Palestinians to Answer for Acts
by Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger (Bloomberg)
Vice President Joe Biden said Israel and the Palestinians will be held “accountable” for actions jeopardizing peace efforts, such as Israeli approval of a plan for new homes in east Jerusalem.
“As we move forward, the United States will hold both sides accountable for any statements or actions that inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of talks, as this decision did,” Biden said. Access the full article>>
“Bold Steps Required to Advance the Peace Process”
Interview with Vice President Joe Biden (Dar Al-Hayat)
“As the President has said, we remain committed to achieving peace in the Middle East because it is in the interests of Israelis, Arabs, and the United States that we do so. But as the President also pointed out, this is very hard work, and we need the parties to take bold steps if we are to make progress towards peace.
We have always known that negotiations will proceed on a variety of tracks, some direct and some indirect. Given the current environment, we think it makes sense to explore a re-launch of negotiations through a mix of such tracks.
We have assured both parties that we will play an active and sustained role throughout the proximity talks, including sharing messages between the parties and by offering our own ideas and bridging proposals as needed. But if this process is going to produce real results, both sides must demonstrate that they will make a serious, good faith effort to overcome their differences and take the needs of the other side into account.” Access the full article>>
The PM is Failing in His Duties
by Haaretz, Editorial
The government once again made a foolhardy, unnecessary and damaging mistake. … Biden’s visit was aimed at opening a new chapter in the Obama administration’s relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as demonstrating America’s commitment to Israel’s security, advancing peace in the Middle East and thwarting the Iranian nuclear threat. The vice president had been effusive in his statements of support for Israel—until, that is, he learned of the latest construction plans in East Jerusalem. …
The real problem, however, is not the timing of the announcement or the act of insulting a crucial ally—which are in themselves quite serious issues. Rather, it is the government’s policy, which from the outset spawned this damaging project. …
Rather than making conciliatory gestures toward the Palestinians and promoting an end to the conflict, the prime minister is sabotaging any chance of an agreement on the issue of Jerusalem. His construction and settlement ventures do not contribute to Israel’s security or economic prosperity. Instead, they render the chances of a diplomatic solution more remote, fuel greater frustration among the Palestinians, and degrade Israel’s international standing. This campaign to consolidate control over East Jerusalem must be stopped. Access the full article>>
Biden’s Get-Your-Act-Together Lecture
by David Horovitz (The Jerusalem Post)
If Joe Biden had spent much of his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories fuming at the Netanyahu government for Tuesday’s dysfunctional announcement of new building plans in Jerusalem’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, he didn’t dwell overly on the issue in a centerpiece address at Tel Aviv University on Thursday. …
His brief finessing of the Ramat Shlomo fiasco—which was an act of spectacularly poor timing that simultaneously humiliated Israel’s best ally, united the Palestinians, the Arab world and much of the international community in condemnation of Israel, and likely spelled the delay rather than the acceleration of the construction project itself—constituted a lesson in astute public diplomacy that the prime minister would do well to learn from.
In language that could only have been finalized shortly before he delivered the speech, Biden reiterated that it was Israel’s perceived breach of trust that had been so galling—at a time, with the fragile proximity talks just getting under way, when trust was at a premium. … But then, having detailed the reasons for his rare resort to the language of condemnation, Biden began the process of smoothing over the dispute … The key to this latter assurance from Netanyahu, said the vice president, was that it gave “time” for the negotiations.
No, ran the subtext, the U.S. Administration does not support Israeli building in east Jerusalem. But if renewed negotiations with the Palestinians make headway, as Washington insists in the face of years of bitter experience they can and should, then the status of Jerusalem and all other core issues can be resolved, and the issue of who can and will build where becomes straightforward. Access the full article>>
From Proximity to Peace?
by The Washington Post, Editorial
The Obama administration appears near to a diplomatic achievement it expected long ago: the relaunch of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. It will be a modest start—not a big conference or a convocation to Camp David but “proximity talks,” in which envoy George J. Mitchell will shuttle between the two camps. This is, in one sense, a step backward for Israeli-Palestinian relations, since the two sides have been talking directly to each other, off and on, since 1991. But Mr. Mitchell says he hopes his brokering will quickly lead to direct talks, and the administration believes that even this stunted process will be better than none at all. …
We hope that proves to be the case—but there is considerable cause for concern about this iteration of the seemingly endless Middle East “peace process.” … On the whole it is better to have Israelis and Palestinians talking than not. But Mr. Mitchell must aim for a quick transition to direct negotiations—and he should avoid raising expectations about what they can accomplish. Access the full article>>
