Local Editor, 2-11-2009

"Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with U.S. special envoy George Mitchell again Monday afternoon in an attempt to find a way to allow the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table. Senior U.S. officials admit that the talks have reached an impasse.

Mitchell met Sunday with Netanyahu's senior aide Yitzhak Molcho and later held discussions with his own advisers. A source in the Prime Minister's Office claimed that the Palestinians were clearly the problem, adding that there was full agreement between "Israel" and the United States.

Netanyahu Sunday hit out at the Palestinian Authority over its demand for a complete "Israeli" settlement freeze before embarking on any fresh "peace talks", saying he hoped the Palestinians would "get a grip" and drop this precondition. "
Netanyahu told the cabinet: "Beginning negotiations is important to us, but it is no less important to the Palestinians. We are committed to negotiations, and we hope that the Palestinians will lift the precondition." The Palestinians, however, have rejected "Israel's" offer to reduce settlement construction, rather than bringing it to a complete halt.

Pointing an accusing finger at the United States, the Palestinians said Sunday that Washington's backing for "Israeli" refusal to halt settlement expansion had killed any hope of reviving peace negotiations soon. Netanyahu has proposed limiting building for now to some 3,000 settler homes already approved by "Israel" in the occupied Dafa [West Bank].

U.S. President Barack Obama himself, after persuading Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in September to meet Netanyahu in New York, called only for "restraint" in settlement, not the previously proposed "freeze."

Meanwhile, leaders of Jordan and Egypt yesterday warned that "Israel's" unilateral actions in occupied Al Quds [Jerusalem] and other occupied Palestinian lands were "derailing" efforts to resume "peace negotiations" with the Palestinians and would have a "catastrophic" effect on the region. The remarks came in a communiqué at the end of a visit to Cairo by Jordan's King Abdullah II, who held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, according local Jordanian news agency.