Following Monday’s meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other officials in the Prime Minister’s Office are releasing statements to legitimize and support the position Abu Mazen, seeking to support his position as Israel’s diplomatic partner.
While Abu Mazen remains firm in his demands, unyielding on his position that portions of Jerusalem serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state, officials in the PM’s Office speak of the “positive statements” released by Abu Mazen following his meeting in Egypt, working to increase his popularity.
Absurdly, Abu Mazen stated he is indeed willing to resume talks with Israel and he is not setting down preconditions, but he does insist on a cessation of “settlement construction and building”, referring to areas throughout Yehuda, Shomron and Jerusalem. In his eyes, these demands do not represent preconditions.
Abu Mazen wants a commitment from Israeli officials that talks will resume based on the pre-June 1967 borders, meaning an Israeli commitment to divide Jerusalem ahead of any talks. Nevertheless, Abu Mazen is not setting preconditions.
Desperate to signal the White House that the diplomatic process is resuming, the PM’s Office is willing to provide its own unique interpretation of the PA leader’s remarks towards narrowing the gap that exists in the hope of resuming talks.
By many accounts, the prime minister has secretly already agreed on major concessions in Yerushalayim despite his public statements to the contrary.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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One Response
“officials in the Prime Minister’s Office are releasing statements to legitimize and support the position Abu Mazen, seeking to support his position as Israel’s diplomatic PARTNER.”
I once had a PARTNER like that.
I went out of business.