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Israel Halts Talks, Citing Palestinian Unity Agreement Israel Halts Talks, Citing Palestinian Unity Agreement
(about 1 hour later)
JERUSALEM — The Israel government decided on Thursday to suspend American-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians because of the reconciliation agreement the Palestinians announced on Wednesday between two rival factions, one of which refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist. JERUSALEM — The Israeli government decided on Thursday to suspend American-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians because of the agreement the Palestinians announced on Wednesday between two rival factions, one of which refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
The Israelis said no talks would be held at least until the new unity government announced by the Palestinians takes shape, and that it would not in any circumstances negotiate with a government that was backed by Hamas, the militant Islamic faction it considers a terrorist group. After a meeting of top ministers that lasted nearly all day, Israel announced that it would freeze the peace talks negotiations at least for the five-week period in which the Palestinians said they would form a new unity government based on their reconciliation agreement. Beyond that, Israel said it would not resume negotiations with any government backed by Hamas, the militant Islamist faction that Israel, like the United States, considers a terrorist organization.
The move came after a six-hour meeting of top Israeli ministers. “Whoever chooses the terrorism of Hamas does not want peace,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement circulated by his office. The statement promised unspecified retaliatory measures against the Palestinians.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is dominated by Fatah and governs the West Bank, announced on Wednesday that they had repaired the seven-year rift between them. The agreement between Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is dominated by the more moderate Fatah party and governs the West Bank, “was signed even as Israel is making efforts to advance the negotiations with the Palestinians,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “It is the direct continuation of the Palestinians’ refusal to advance the negotiations.”
Palestinian leaders sought Thursday to soften the blow the agreement dealt to the faltering peace process, saying the new government would be made up of “technocrats” unaffiliated with Hamas or other political parties. But the Israeli decision left the prospects for continuing negotiations very slim. The peace talks, begun at American urging last summer, were far from reaching a resolution, and were due to end in five days. Secretary of State John Kerry and his peace envoy, Martin Indyk, have been working furiously to find a formula under which the parties would extend them. Mr. Kerry and President Obama have issued dire warnings that this round of talks may be the last chance for a negotiated two-state solution to the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The peace talks were stalemated for months, and had been on the brink of collapse since April 2, when the Palestinians, frustrated by Israel’s failure to keep a promise to release a group of Palestinian prisoners, moved to join 15 international conventions in defiance of Israel. Both sides and the United States had said they wanted to keep the peace process going, but they remained far apart on the terms for doing so.
Many analysts saw Wednesday’s reconciliation deal as a ploy by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority to press Israel into making concessions to keep the talks going. Instead, it seems to have provided Mr.Netanyahu with a pretext for walking away from them.
Mr. Abbas “basically miscalculated,” said Hillel Frisch, a professor at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University who specializes in Palestinian politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “They were both in it to appease the Americans, and wanted to blame each other for the failure of the talks. By moving with Hamas, they played into Israeli hands.”
After the reconciliation deal drew harsh reactions from Israel and Washington, Palestinian leaders had sought on Thursday to soften its impact on the peace process. Jibril Rajoub, a top official in Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction, said that the new government would recognize Israel and renounce violence, meeting the conditions set by the “Quartet” of Middle East peacemakers —the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union —that Hamas has repeatedly rejected.
“The government of national consent that will be established, headed by Abu Mazen, will declare clearly and unequivocally that it accepts the Quartet’s conditions,” Mr. Rajoub said, using Mr. Abbas’s nickname in an interview on Israel’s Army Radio channel. “There is no cause for concern.”
Similarly, Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the P.L.O. executive committee, called Wednesday’s agreement “merely a first step” and said that American and Israeli reactions were “premature.”
For its part, Hamas signaled that it was drawing a distinction between its own views and those of the unity government it was joining and that there was no need for Hamas to recognize Israel.
“You don’t need organizations to recognize Israel,” Ghazi Hamad, the Hamas deputy foreign minister, told Ynet, an Israeli news website. “It’s enough that the Palestine Liberation Organization — the representative of the Palestinian people — recognizes the State of Israel.” As for whether his party would renounce violence, Mr.Hamad told Ynet that the question would be worked out in negotiations with Fatah over the next few weeks.
Several Palestinian officials and analysts emphasized that the promised new government was to be made up of “technocrats” — professionals who are not partisan political figures — and that its task was to unify the Gaza Strip and West Bank after a seven-year schism and prepare for elections to be held in six months. Therefore, they said, there was no contradiction between a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, and the Palestinian government’s continued negotiation with Israel.
But Mkhaimer Abusaada, a Gaza-based political analyst, said the new government would be subject to a confidence vote by the Palestinian Legislative Council, an elected body that has a Hamas majority.
“If Hamas gives a vote of confidence in this government, and this government is going to accept the Quartet preconditions, what is the contradiction between such a deal and negotiations with Israel?” Mr. Abusaada asked. “If that government takes a vote of confidence from the P.L.C. and at the end of the day the government is going to accept the Quartet preconditions, that means that Hamas is indirectly accepting the conditions of the Quartet. Whether that will work or not, we’ll have to see.”