Bibi wants the fence then some

Shlomo Cesana, Daniel Siryoti and News Agencies, ISRAEL HAYOM

Pessimistic. Abbas and Bibi not seeing eye to eye

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas expressed pessimism Monday, ahead of their Wednesday meetings with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, saying the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians seem to be treading water.

“I see no real changes in the Palestinian position since 1993,” Netanyahu said in Monday’s Likud-Beytenu faction meeting, referring to the year in which the Oslo Accords were signed.

Addressing a question by MK Tzipi Hotovely, the prime minister negated the possibility of promoting interim agreements, stressing that the current negotiations were focused on reaching a permanent peace deal with the Palestinian Authority.

Commenting on a statement by Meretz Chairwoman MK Zehava Gal-On, who hedged that the U.S. will present a draft agreement in January, which will include all the core issues and be based on the 1967 borders and land swaps, Netanyahu said that Israel would be willing to explore any suggestion that would maintain its security interests. [ This is a very weak answer and begs the question.]

“If the Palestinians can’t even meet the agreements reached so far — we release prisoners but continue building [settlements] — how can I be sure they will live up to the bigger issues, which their society is sure to find much more controversial? If you want to lead — get up and make the hard decisions. That’s what I did and I expect the Palestinians to do the same,” Netanyahu was quoted by i24news as saying.

Commenting on another remark by Gal-On, who said that based on her meetings with Palestinian and American officials she had reason to believe that “the Americans are making the transition from mediating the talks to intervening in them,” political sources said that no specific American initiative was presented to Israel, let alone imposed on it. [Who trusts them?]

Washington would much rather see both parties reach an agreement on their own, the sources said. [This is a preference only.]

Abbas, who met with Fatah officials in Ramallah on Monday, said he does not hold much hope for the current round of peace talks: “There hasn’t been any advancement in the talks with the Israelis until now, despite all the meetings between the sides,” he was quoted by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA as saying. “After all these rounds of negotiations, there is nothing on the ground. The negotiations are still without results.”

Abbas slammed Israel’s insistence on linking the Palestinian prisoners’ release to its planned settlement expansion, warning that “the link of the two issues is likely to bring about the termination of the talks, without results.”

He also threatened to renege on the PA’s agreement not to unilaterally appeal for membership in international organizations during the negotiations, unless all the released prisoners are allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank, Gaza Strip or Israel.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said Monday that the Arab League plans to seek a U.N. Security Council censure of Israel over its planned settlement expansion.

A senior Ramallah source told Israel Hayom that the measure was meant to circumvent the understandings reached prior to the resumption of the peace talks, according to which Israel will be able to pursue construction in Judea and Samaria in exchange for the prisoners’ release.

Also on Monday, Palestinian media quoted PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo as saying that Israel was not sincerely engaged in the peace talks. “There is one party negotiating, and that is us, while the other party is not proposing anything that goes in line with international legitimacy and law,” he told Voice of Palestine radio.

Another Palestinian official said that “we are pressing further with the talks for now, in hopes that the next two stages [of the prisoners’ release] will be carried out.” He added that it is highly unlikely that the negotiations would implode, saying, “The only ones to lose from stopping the talks would be the Palestinians and Abu Mazen [Abbas] and his associates are well aware of that.”

Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams have held 15 meetings since the peace talks resumed in August, but according to a Tuesday report by Israel Radio, the issue of Jerusalem has caused the negotiations to hit a snag, as chief Israeli negotiator Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Netanyahu’s envoy Isaac Molho disagree on the question of the size of the area that will be defined for the free movement of Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Molho seeks to reduce the area as much as possible and apply it only to east Jerusalem, while Livni seeks to be more flexible in the matter.

Israel’s opening position in the borders’ negotiation focuses on the need for a barrier rather than on the 1967 lines, as demanded by the Palestinians. According to Israel Radio, Israel seeks to retain control not only over the major settlement blocs, but also over several additional areas, such as the Jordan Valley and the settlements of Psagot, Nokdim and Beit El.

Israel also seeks to retain control of the water sources in the area, and the Palestinians were told they could purchase water from Israel.

A source in the Prime Minister’s Office who is privy to the negotiations denied the reports concerning the borders, saying that Israel has made it adamantly clear to the Palestinians that Jerusalem will remain united and under Israeli sovereignty.

Livni’s office refused to address the issue, saying only that the reports were “unfounded and promoted by individuals who seek to impede the peace process.” According to a source in the justice minister’s office, Livni and Molho are working together and their efforts are coordinated.