Shaath: No West Bank violence unless settlers start it

PLO official Nabil Shaath said Sunday that he does not see any risk of unrest in the West Bank unless settlers instigate it.

Speaking with Army Radio, Shaath said, "We are not going to allow any unrest in the West Bank, neither politically nor security wise." Politically, he said, "I think our people are quite satisfied not to go back to

violence and are going in this fight to continue their peaceful struggle for independence and for real peace and a two-state solution."

Addressing the risk of violence, Shaath added, "I don't see any risk of having unrest in the West Bank unless the Israeli settlers want to create that."

Asked why the Palestinian leadership refuses to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, Shaath responded that the Jewish people, on their own, decided "that they have really built their state that is not only for the Jewish people because 22 percent of Israelis are not Jewish."

Presented with statements attributed to the Palestinian Authority envoy to the United States last week that a Palestinian state would be without Jews, Shaath said that Maen Areikat "never said 'Jewish free,'" but rather "that at the beginning of our peace, we want to separate."

Asked whether settlers would be allowed to live in a future Palestinian state, he added, "If [settlers] decide to accept Palestinian citizenship and buy the territory that they have and live as individual citizens, then why not?"

Addressing the possibility to avert a vote in either the United Nations Security Council or General Assembly on recognition of Palestinian statehood and an immediate return to direct negotiations with Israel, the senior Palestinian official put forth one condition.

"Of course there is a chance to start direct negotiations," Shaath said, "you stop your settlement and we'll go tomorrow to direct negotiations."

AP Exclusive: Israeli, Palestinian forces hope to thwart violence in September

Israeli and Palestinian security forces are already taking precautions to avoid an outbreak of violence after an expected U.N. vote for Palestinian independence in September, officials on both sides said Sunday, reflecting shared concerns about the possibility of renewed fighting this fall.

For now, Israeli and Palestinian officials said they do not want — or expect — armed hostilities to resume.
But both sides fear that one small incident could quickly spin out of control.
“We need only popular and peaceful struggle,” said Amin Makboul, a top official in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party. “We want to show the world that we are responsible and deserve to be part of the international community.”
After the bitter lessons of last decade’s Palestinian uprising, the Palestinians do not want to give Israel any “pretext” to claim the Palestinians are not serious about creating a peaceful state, Makboul added.
A top Palestinian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Abbas recently issued a straightforward order to his commanders: “I don’t want any violent actions in September,” the official quoted Abbas as saying. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a sensitive internal meeting.
Israeli and Palestinian officials both say the region is headed into uncharted waters if the Palestinians follow through on their pledge to turn to the United Nations.
Each side is trying to prepare for all scenarios. Mostly it is in closed forums whose deliberations are so tightly guarded as to suggest a fear that the mere mention of a new Palestinian uprising might somehow contribute to tensions. However, some preparations are more public.
Some 1,000 Israeli military officers held a two-day drill last week to prepare for September, discussing such issues as crowd-control tactics and the latest intelligence, officials say.
The army will use the coming months to fine-tune its preparations in hopes of avoiding bloodshed, they said.
Abbas has said he will seek an international endorsement of Palestinian independence if peace talks with Israel remain stalled, as they have been for nearly three years. The U.S. has stepped up efforts to find a formula for renewing negotiations in recent weeks, but there have been no signs of a breakthrough.
The Palestinians say they will not resume talks until Israel freezes all contruction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas captured in 1967 which they claim for a future state.
A senior Palestinian official has hinted the Palestinians will ease this demand if Israel accepts President Barack Obama’s formula of basing a future Palestinian state on Israel’s pre-1967 frontiers, with agreed land swaps. Setting the rough outlines of a future border at the outset, the thinking goes, would largely solve the settlement issue on its own — since Israel would know which of the communities it will ultimately be able to keep.
Israel has reacted coolly to Obama’s plan, saying that all issues, including settlements and final borders, should be reached in negotiations.

Carter calls on international community to support Hamas-Fatah unity deal

Former United States President Jimmy Carter hailed the Palestinian unity government and called on the international community to also support it as well in an opinion peace published by the Washington Post on Wednesday.

"If the United States and the international community support this effort, they can help Palestinian democracy and establish the basis for a unified Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza that can make a secure peace with Israel," Carter wrote in the op-ed. "If they remain aloof or undermine the agreement, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory may deteriorate with a new round of violence against Israel."

Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah are meeting in Cairo on Wednesday in order to sign a reconciliation deal that would lead to an interim unity government.

The former U.S. president issued a statement on Friday commending the reconciliation, which he said would "begin the process of reunifying the Palestinian people."

Carter writes in his opinion peace that with international support, the Palestinian reconciliation "could lead to a durable cease-fire" with Israel. He also wrote that he condemned Hamas rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.

Israel has rejected the Hamas-Fatah unity agreement, with Netanyahu saying shortly after it was announced that "the Palestinian Authority must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both. Hamas aspires to destroy Israel and fires rockets at our cities ... at our children."

Carter claimed that Israelis "say that as long as the Palestinians are divided, there is no partner for peace. But at the same time, they refuse to accept a unity government."

The Quartet should work with the new Palestinian government to be able to "jump-start final-status negotiations with Israel," Carter concluded.

US condemns killing of five Israelis in Itamar attack

White House calls on Palestinian Authority "to unequivocally condemn this terrorist attack and for the perpetrators of this heinous crime to be held accountable."
WASHINGTON - The United States on Saturday called the stabbing deaths of five Israelis in the West Bank settlement of Itamar a terrorist attack and urged the Palestinian Authority to "unequivocally" condemn the killings.
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of five Israelis in a terrorist attack in the northern West Bank, and we offer our condolences to their loved ones and to the Israeli people," the White House said in a statement.
A Jewish couple and three of their children were stabbed to death in Itamar on Saturday in what Israeli officials said was an attack by a Palestinian who broke into their home in the early hours.
"There is no possible justification for the killing of parents and children in their home," The White House said.
"We call on the Palestinian Authority to unequivocally condemn this terrorist attack and for the perpetrators of this heinous crime to be held accountable."