Vatican to Recognise Palestinian State in Treaty

Pope Francis delighted his Palestinian hosts by referring to the
"state of Palestine" during a three-day visit to the Middle East
a year ago

BBC AMERICA: The Vatican is to formally recognise Palestinian statehood in a treaty that will be signed shortly, officials say.

Israel has expressed its disappointment at the decision which it says will not advance the peace process.

Talks between the Palestinians and the Vatican - which favours a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - have gone of for 20 years.

President Abbas meets the Pope this weekend when two 19th Century Palestinian nuns will be canonised.

The Vatican is eager that property and civil rights of the Catholic Church in the Palestinian state is protected, correspondents say. According to the New York Times, it has strong religious interests in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories that include Christian holy sites. » | Wednesday, May 13, 2015

ARUTZ SHEVA: Vatican Preparing to Recognize PA as 'Palestine': Foreign Ministry warns that the Vatican's step will not bring peace, may change Israel-Vatican relations. » | Nitzan Keidar | Wednesday, May 13, 2015

MPs 'Encouraged Hamas Terrorism' by Voting for Palestinian State Says Israel

Yuval Steinitz, Israel's intelligence and strategic affairs minister

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Israeli cabinet minister tells the Telegraph that a 'miserable' vote in the Commons rewarded Hamas

Parliament was guilty of “encouraging terrorist attacks” and “giving up” on peace when MPs cast a “miserable” vote in favour of Palestinian statehood, according to an Israeli cabinet minister.

Yuval Steinitz, the intelligence and strategic affairs minister, told the Telegraph that he was “surprised” and “frustrated” by the passage of a resolution through the Commons last Monday urging the Government to “recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel”.

This vote came soon after the summer war between Israel and Hamas, the radical Islamist movement, which claimed the lives of 71 Israelis and 2,189 Palestinians.

“It was a reward for this terrorist attack on Israel to make such a vote only two months after Israel was attacked with 4,000 rockets,” said Mr Steinitz. “Of course Israel responded and retaliated, but Israel came under attack for 50 days of fire of hundreds of rockets every day.”

Mr Steinitz pointed out that Hamas had been condemned by Arab leaders including Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, who promised to fight for a state with “politics and wisdom” instead of rockets. » | David Blair, Chief Foreign Correspondent | Friday, October 24, 2014

Britain Summons Israeli Ambassador In Protest Over Settlements

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Britain summoned the Israeli ambassador and considered withdrawing its own envoy from Tel Aviv on Monday in protest over plans for another 3,000 settler homes on occupied Palestinian land.

If London were to recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv for consultations, this would be an unprecedented step.

The diplomatic row follows last Friday’s announcement by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. He promised that his government would respond to the Palestinian decision to seek upgraded status at the United Nations by adding 3,000 new homes to Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In addition, Israel would also begin the planning process to build in a highly sensitive area known as “E1”. This cuts off East Jerusalem – which the Palestinians claim as their future capital – from the rest of the West Bank. It also divides the northern and southern halves of the West Bank, potentially depriving any future Palestinian state of territorial contiguity.

British and French diplomats saw this decision as a calculated rebuff by Mr Netanyahu, particularly as both countries had supported the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, where eight days of air strikes and rocket barrages claimed 166 Palestinian and six Israeli lives last month.

After Mr Netanyahu’s announcement, Matthew Gould, the British ambassador to Israel, and his French counterpart, Christophe Bigot, are understood to have held a “very tough” telephone conversation with Rafi Barak, the director general of Israel’s foreign ministry. They urged a reversal of Israel’s decision. » | Robert Tait in Jerusalem and David Blair | Monday, December 03, 2012

Ultra-Orthodox Jews Campaign for Dismantling of Israel

Inside Story: Obama's Push against UN-approved Palestine
Inside Story, discusses with, Reuel Marc Gerecht, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracy; Patrick Seale, author of Struggle for Arab Independence; and Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, professor of politics, American University, Cairo. This episode of Inside Story aired on Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Benjamin Netanyahu 'To Offer Palestinians Territorial Concessions'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to offer territorial concessions to the Palestinian leadership on Tuesday as he attempts to defuse a damaging confrontation with President Barack Obama.

Two days after he delighted his right-wing base at home by clashing publicly with Mr Obama over the contours of a future Palestinian state, the Israeli prime minister will seek to recast himself as a peacemaker in an address before Congress.

Israeli aides have trumpeted the speech as one of the most important Mr Netanyahu has ever made.

The contents of the speech have not been divulged, but until last week he had been expected to accept, on completion of a peace deal, the principle of Palestinian sovereignty in Gaza and much of the West Bank.

But the offer, which is likely to be less generous than those made by his predecessors, has been overshadowed by Mr Obama's call last Friday that the borders of a Palestinian state should roughly be based on the ceasefire lines that existed before Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.

Sitting beside the president during a tense meeting at the White House, Mr Netanyahu publicly rejected a return to "1967 lines". It is unclear whether he has made changes to his speech to Congress as a result. » | Adrian Blomfield, Jerusalem | Monday, May 23, 2011

Barack Obama's Big Middle East Gamble

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama seems unrepentant over his comments on Israel's border and appears to think that his own personality will be enough to resolve a '100-year-old headache'.

Striding to the podium inside the Washington Convention Centre, President Barack Obama did his very best to avoid any sense that he felt intimidated by entering what was, in political terms, the lion's den.

There was tepid applause and a couple of isolated boos from the crowd of almost 10,000 members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as Aipac, the premier and most hardline mainstream group in the powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States.

The reception was one of intense scepticism. A vast majority of delegates felt that Mr Obama had a need to explain himself after his comments that a Middle East peace deal should be based on Israel's 1967 border incorporating agreed land swaps with the Palestinians.

But if they thought that the American president was going to take back his words in Thursday's speech at the State Department's Foggy Bottom headquarters, then they were sorely mistaken.

Wagging his finger repeatedly, Mr Obama adopted the manner of a schoolmaster frustrated that his pupils were too dim or inattentive to pay attention to what he had said. Continue reading and comment » | Toby Harnden | Sunday, May 22, 2011

Negotiating with Hamas 'Unacceptable'
Mark Regev is the spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. He says negotiating with a Palestinian government that includes members of Hamas is unacceptable.

Heftiger Streit Amerikas mit Israel

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Israels Präsident Netanjahu hat dem amerikanischen Präsidenten Obama die Gefährdung der Existenz Israels vorgeworfen. Im Weißen Haus protestierte er gegen Obamas Vorschlag für einen Palästinenserstaat in den Grenzen von 1967. In diesem Fall könne das Land „nicht verteidigt“ werden, warnte Netanjahu.

Der israelische Ministerpräsident Benjamin Netanjahu hat Präsident Barack Obama vorgeworfen, mit seiner Forderung nach einem palästinensischen Staat in den Grenzen von 1967 die Existenz Israels zu gefährden. Sollte sich Israel tatsächlich auf die vor dem Sechstagekrieg vom Juni 1967 bestehenden Grenzen zurückziehen, könne das Land „nicht verteidigt“ werden, warnte Netanjahu am Freitag.

Ein mehrstündiges Gespräch zwischen ihm und Obama war am Freitag in Washington ohne eine Annäherung zu Ende gegangen. Es gebe Unterschiede in der Beurteilung einer möglichen Ausgangsposition für neue Verhandlungen, sagte Obama nach dem Treffen im Weißen Haus. „Offensichtlich haben wir Differenzen in präzisen Formulierungen und in der Sprache“, solche seien aber „unter Freunden“ normal. Netanjahu erklärte, dass Israel durchaus zu Zugeständnissen bereit sei. Ein Rückzug hinter die Grenzen von 1967 sei jedoch unmöglich. „Damit es Frieden gibt, müssen die Palästinenser bestimmte fundamentale Realitäten akzeptieren“, sagte Netanjahu weiter. „Wir haben keinen großen Spielraum, denn die Geschichte wird den Juden keine zweite Chance geben“, fügte er hinzu. » | FAZ.NET | Freitag, 20. Mai 2011

Related »

Benjamin Netanyahu Rebukes Barack Obama Over 1967 Plan

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has issued a public rebuke to Barack Obama's face, telling the US president his proposed border for the Jewish state would be "indefensible" and not based on reality.

Mr Netanyahu told Mr Obama that to suggest a return to Israel's pre-1967 borders did not "take into account certain changes that have taken place" in the intervening 44 years.

The president said that the talks, which had overrun in the Oval Office by more than 90 minutes, had been "extremely useful" and although he did not mention the pre-1967 borders, he reiterated the need for "a contiguous, functioning" Palestinian state.

It was the seventh Obama-Netanyahu meeting and came after Mr Obama's speech on Thursday calling for the creation of a Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders triggered uproar in the Israeli government.

During the frosty public show, the Israeli premier told Mr Obama that any peace deal "based on illusion will crash on the rocks of Middle East reality". Israel, he insisted, "can't go back to the 1967 lines".

Mr Netanyahu also warned that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, would have to choose between a new unity pact with the militant group Hamas or peace with Israel. Mr Obama agreed with Mr Netanyahu that the Palestinians would have to answer "some very difficult questions" about the recent reconciliation deal between Hamas and Fatah – Hamas still denies Israel's right to exist.

Mr Netanyahu's anger was compounded by the fact that he had been taken by surprise, learning the contents of Mr Obama's Thursday speech about the future of the Middle East just a few hours before it was delivered. » | Toby Harnden, Washington and Adrian Blomfield | Friday, May 20, 2011

Israel: US 'Does Not Understand' What We Face
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama demonstrated in his latest Mideast policy speech that "Washington does not understand what we face," according to a senior Israeli official.


The official says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was disappointed the speech did not address the Palestinian demand to repatriate to Israel millions of Palestinians, most descendants of people who were driven from or fled homes in the war over the Jewish state's 1948 creation.

Speaking ahead of Mr Netanyahu's White House meeting with Mr Obama, the official said, "There is a sense that Washington does not understand the reality, that Washington does not understand what we face."

Mr Obama last night ordered Israel to accept Palestinian demands in a peace deal as he pledged American support for human rights in the Middle East.

Mr Obama was more explicit about the parameters of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that ever before. He said Israel had to accept the Palestinian demand for it to accept the 1967 borders.
A Jewish state "cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation" of Palestinian lands," he said.

"Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognised borders are established for both states," he said. "The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state."

The embrace of a key Palestinian demand is likely to anger Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli premier, on the eve of his visit to the White House on Friday. » | Friday, May 20, 2011

My comment:

Obama is a greenhorn. He's fond of talking, but that's about all. I think the world has already started switching off when he speaks. Even the Saudis summed up his Mideast speech in two words: "meaningless drivel"! Obama certainly doesn't understand Israel's dilemma, nor does he comprehend the realities of life there for Israelis on a day-to-day basis. The power of Obama is on the wane. He's a spent force. – © Mark

This comment also appears here

Talk to Al Jazeera - Khaled Meshaal

Palestinian State Looming
YNET NEWS: Op-ed: Eitan Haber says we are quickly approaching the establishment of Palestinian state

In recent weeks, the Israeli and global media have been publishing a series of boring, repetitive stories: Ecuador has recognized the Palestinians state. Argentina has recognized the Palestinian state. And Brazil as well. And Bolivia too. And, ouch, also Uruguay. What’s going on here? It’s the same boring story every time, with only the country’s name changing. >>> Eitan Haber | Thursday, January 20, 2011

Barack Obama Threatens to Impose Peace Plan on Middle East
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama has warned Israel he will pave the way for an independent Palestinian state if the peace process remains deadlocked until the autumn.

The US president is proposing to hand control of the Middle East peace process to the international community unless there is a breakthrough in the next few months, Israeli officials have said.

Mr Obama has formulated a secret plan with leading European allies to convene an international peace conference by the end of the year, according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper.

The move would fulfil one of Israel's deepest fears by effectively stripping the Jewish state of its power to dictate the course of talks.

The conference would attempt to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict by pressing both sides to accept difficult compromises on issues ranging from the future of millions of Palestinian refugees to the status of Jerusalem.

Mr Obama is also eager to gain international recognition for the creation of a Palestinian state. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Friday, April 30, 2010

Obama pone Andalucía y Córdoba como ejemplo de libertad religiosa / Obama Puts Cordova and Andalusia as an Example of Religious Freedom