Israel Halts Talks, Citing Palestinian Unity Agreement

The New York Times, April 24, 2013 by Jodi Rudoren

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.

After a meeting of top ministers that lasted nearly all day, Israel announced that it would freeze the 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 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.”

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 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.

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.