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(Bloomberg) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a Mideast trip to revive stalled peace talks, commended Israel’s “unprecedented” offer to limit construction of Jewish settlements, while Palestinians maintained their demand for a total building freeze.
Clinton’s praise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hours after she stopped in Abu Dhabi to see Palestinian Authority PresidentMahmoud Abbas, contrasted with administration criticism earlier this year of Israel’s West Bank settlement policy.
“At the beginning of the administration we were out to bury Netanyahu on this issue,” said Aaron David Miller, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington and a former Middle East negotiator. “The pendulum has swung and we’re now praising him.”
Clinton said that while the U.S. still opposes new Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the Israeli offer may be good enough to get negotiations restarted.
“The Israelis have responded to our call to stop settlement activity by expressing a willingness to restrain settlement activity,” she said today. “While their offer falls short of our position, if acted upon, it would provide unprecedented restrictions on settlements and would have a significant and meaningful effect on the ground.”
The Israeli prime minister’s proposal to halt new building in the West Bank aside from growth to existing settlements as a precursor to talks was “unprecedented,” Clinton said at a news conference yesterday with Netanyahu.
“There are always demands made in any negotiations that are not going to be met,” she said when asked whether she had managed to persuade the parties to return to talks for a two- state solution. “We hope that we’ll be able to move into the negotiations where all the issues” will be on the table for the two sides to “begin to resolve,” she said.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters before the Clinton-Netanyahu meeting “settlements shouldn’t be seen as a precondition” on resuming peace talks.
Clinton’s support for the Israeli position that a total settlement freeze need not be a precondition for resumption of negotiations contrasts with Obama’s June 4 speech at Cairo University, where he promised to resume a serious peace process to end the conflict within two years, said Hani al-Masri a political scientist at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank.
TEL AVIV — Palestinian officials on Sunday reacted with frustration at U.S. efforts to restart deadlocked Mideast peace talks, accusing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of backtracking on earlier U.S. demands for a halt in settlement building in the West Bank.
“It’s damaging for the administration to walk in a zigzag line on the settlements” issue, said Palestinian Authority Housing and Public Works Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.
The Obama administration’s earlier outspoken insistence on a complete halt appeared to heighten a sense of disappointment by Palestinian officials over Mrs. Clinton’s comments.
Jordan’s King Abdullah embarked on an unexpected trip to Cairo to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
A Palestinian man prays Sunday on his land, which overlooks
the Israeli settlement of Har Homa near Bethlehem.
Israel is “derailing” peace efforts by building settlements and jeopardizing the identity of Jerusalem Al-Quds and holy places, the leaders of Jordan and Egyptian say.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in a joint communique in Cairo, warned on Sunday that Israel’s unilateral actions in the occupied Palestinian territories are endangering peace efforts and would ultimately have a “catastrophic” effect on the region.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."