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'We'll find killers.' Netanyahu lands in Washington
Photo: GPO
Against all attacks. Abbas
Photo: Reuters

Netanyahu: Terror will not determine borders

During meeting with Clinton following deadly West Bank shooting attack, PM says Israel will demand 'security arrangements meant to prevent such murders.' US Secretary of state: We pledge to do all we can always to protect Israel

WASHINGTON - "We will not let the blood of Israeli civilians go unpunished. We will find the murderers, we will punish their dispatchers," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said overnight Wednesday after four Israeli settlers were murdered when the vehicle they were traveling in was ambushed by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank's Hebron region.

 

Hamas claimed responsibility for the deadly shooting attack.

 

During a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a Washington hotel ahead of the direct peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, the PM said, "We will not let terror decide where Israelis live or the configuration of our final borders. These and other issues will be determined in negotiations for peace that we are conducting.

 

"During the negotiations we will demand security arrangements aimed to prevent such murders," he added.

 

Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, said earlier that the attack would not change this week's summit, but served to stress the security concerns that Israel plans to make a central issue in the talks.

 

"There is no change. We are committed to peace," Regev said.

 

The direct talks are expected to kick off on Thursday.

 

Clinton said that halting such terror and destruction "is one of the reasons why the prime minister is here today, to engage in direct negotiations with those Palestinians who themselves have rejected a path of violence in favor of a path of peace."

 


Gaza kids celebrate West Bank murders (Photo: AP)

 

She added: "We pledge to do all we can always to protect and defend the state of Israel and to provide security to the Israeli people. That is one of the paramount objectives that Israel has and the United States supports in these negotiations."

 

Ahead of Thursday's sessions, Clinton and the administration's Mideast peace envoy, George Mitchell, met Tuesday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Netanyahu as well as the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the representative of the "Quartet" of Mideast peacemakers.

 

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Clinton's talks were intended to clarify where the parties stand as they head into the talks, which the administrations wants to mark "the reinvigoration of intensive process."

 

"We want to see not just a successful relaunch tomorrow, but an understanding that, going forward, the leaders will meet on a regular basis," he said.

 

Abbas said the shooting attack in Hebron was meant to "impede the diplomatic process," stressing that the Palestinian Authority "objects to attacks on civilians from both sides – Israeli or Palestinian."

 

The White House issued a statement saying the United States condemns the attack "in the strongest possible terms.

 

"On the eve of the re-launch of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, this brutal attack underscores how far the enemies of peace will go to try to block progress," the statement said, urging the "parties persevere, keep moving forward even through difficult times, and continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region that provides security for all peoples."

 


Victims' car after attack (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

 

On Wednesday, Abbas and Netanyahu will meet separately with Obama. Then, joined by Jordan's King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, they will attend a White House dinner intended to set the stage for the launch of formal talks a day later at the State Department. Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab nations with peace deals with Israel.

 

One major immediate challenge will be the Palestinians' demand that Israel extend a 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank that expires on Sept. 26.

 

Netanyahu, who faces pressure from his right-wing Likud Party and hawkish coalition partners to resume building inside West Bank settlements when the freeze ends, has made no such pledge. And, Palestinian officials have warned that without one, the talks in Washington may be nothing more than a two-day excursion to the US capital.

 

Beyond the settlements, Israel and the Palestinians face numerous hurdles on resolving the other issues of contention, notably the borders of a future Palestinian state, the political status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

 

At the same time, internal Palestinian divisions that have led to a split between Abbas and his West Bank-based administration and Hamas, which controls Gaza, will complicate the talks. Hamas is not part of the negotiations and has said the talks will be futile.

 

American officials are hopeful they can at least get the two sides to agree to a second round, likely to be held in the second week of September in Egypt. That could be followed by another meeting between Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly near the end of the month, they said.

 

Netanyahu has said he would like to meet regularly with Abbas, perhaps every two weeks, as lower-level talks expected to convene in working groups continue. During that period, Clinton and Mitchell would be available to offer suggestions to help the parties overcome obstacles they encounter, the officials said.

 

Indeed, Abbas told reporters accompanying him to Washington on Tuesday that he hopes for an active US role with the administration presenting "bridging proposals" to close gaps.

 

But that formula has failed in the past, notably when former President Bill Clinton was unable to get the two sides to agree to a peace deal at Camp David in 2000, and then again when former President George W. Bush tried his hand at resolving the conflict starting with the Annapolis conference in 2007.

 

Netanyahu has refused to pick up where the Annapolis negotiations left off in December 2008 between Abbas and then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was more moderate than Netanyahu.

 

Before leaving for Washington, Netanyahu told his Likud Party that he would seek "real arrangements on the ground" that ensure the security of Israelis.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.01.10, 08:06
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