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World Jewish News
Pressure Israel to accept two states, Palestinians urge Mitchell
17.04.2009
The US must hold Israel to previous peace commitments and pressure it to accept the principle of Palestinian statehood, Palestinian leaders told US President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy in Ramallah on Friday.
The envoy, George Mitchell, met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at his West Bank headquarters, after holding talks earlier in the day with Fatah politicians.
The principle of Palestinian statehood is emerging as a key point of friction between the US and Israel's new government. During his current trip to the region, Mitchell twice referred to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a US national interest. However, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has yet to officially endorse the idea.
An official in Netanyahu's office said that in a meeting with Mitchell on Thursday, the prime minister expressed misgivings about creating a Palestinian state because of concern that Hamas could take over the West Bank, as it overran Gaza in 2007. The experience of Israel withdrawing from territory, only to have it controlled by Palestinian extremists "is not going to be repeated," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were not public.
Abbas aides argue that Israel must be held to the same standards as the Palestinians. The previous Israeli government accepted the idea of a two-state solution, though it disagreed sharply with Abbas over the terms of Palestinian statehood.
"The international Quartet ... demanded from us to accept a two-state solution and agreements signed, and we did, and I think the same standards should be applied to Israel," Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said ahead of the Mitchell talks.
He said that "it is time for President Obama to make sure that Israel" meets its commitments, adding that failure to do so would weaken moderates and push the region further into the hands of extremists.
Netanyahu told Mitchell on Thursday that Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state was a fundamental element for any talks between the two parties. However, Erekat rejected the demand, saying that such conditions were never placed on Jordan or Egypt when they signed peace deals with Israel.
Kadoura Fares, a Fatah leader, said he told Mitchell that "conditions should not only be imposed on one side, but also on the other."
Источник: JPost.com
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