Does Clinton's praise of Israeli policy presage policy shift?

[Israel Insider]

Israel is making "unprecedented" concessions on West Bank settlement construction, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Saturday after arriving in Israel in the latest U.S. bid to renew peace talks in the region. The Obama administration had previously demanded Israel halt all settlement building before negotiations could resume. But speaking at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Clinton said there has never been such a precondition. "It has always been an issue with negotiations," she said. "What the Prime Minister has offered in specifics of a restraint on the policy of settlements which he has just described - no new starts for example, is unprecedented in the context of prior to negotiations."

"It's also the fact that for forty years, Presidents of both parties have questioned the legitimacy of settlements, but I think that where we are right now is to try to get into the negotiations. The Prime Minister will be able to present his government's proposal about what they are doing regarding settlements which I think when fully explained will be seen as being not only unprecedented in response to many of the concerns that have been expressed," Clinton went on to say.

The American secretary of state also urged Israel and the Palestinians to immediately renew stalled peace talks. "I want to see both sides as soon as possible begin in negotiations," she said. "Both president Obama and I are committed to a comprehensive peace agreement." Netanyahu, for his part, said that Israel while was willing to enter into peace talks without preconditions, the other side was not. "We think we should sit around that negotiating table right away," he said.

He repeated the concessions he is willing to make: Israel will build no new settlement communities, expropriate no land for existing ones and limit the number of permits for new housing construction. "What we should do on the path to peace is get on it and get with it," he said.

The prime minister also blasted the Palestinian demand for a settlement freeze. "But this is a new demand, it's a change of policy - of the Palestinian policy and it doesn't do much for peace - it doesn't work to advance negotiations," Netanyahu said. "It actually is used as a pretext or at least as something, as an obstacle that prevents the re-establishment of negotiations."

Clinton and Netanyahu met a few hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected a U.S. proposal for the renewal of peace talks. During the press conference, the secretary of state said the talks with Abbas were "very useful."

Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said earlier that Clinton proposed a formula for renewing the talks on the basis of understandings over West Bank settlement construction reached between U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy, George Mitchell, and the Israeli government, according to Erakat. But at a news conference after the Abu Dhabi meeting, Abbas said he told Clinton there would be no new negotiations unless Israel froze settlement building, Israel Radio reported.

[RonaldH]

'Does Clinton's praise of Israeli policy presage policy shift?'
I don't think so. From where I sit, all the facts of the conflict clearly show that Israel is the 'good guy' and the Pals wear the black hats. With that kind of background, it must be hard for someone like Hilliary Clinton, who is not an apocalyptic, religious fanatic, to be even handed. I think she simply made a mistake by not lying and saying that construction of a few thousand apartments is 'an obstacle to peace'. Once she realized it was a political mistake to speak honestly about the conflict, she backtracked. Concerning the Arabs, who lie about everything all the time, Hilliary will learn that she can never let down her guard and speak the truth.

[Robert Bernier]

International law and legitimacy
The Mandate survived the demise of the League of Nations. Article 80 of the UN Charter implicitly recognizes the “Mandate for Palestine” of the League of Nations.
This Mandate granted Jews the irrevocable right to settle anywhere in Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, a right unaltered in international law and valid to this day. Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (i.e. the West Bank), Gaza and the whole of Jerusalem are legal. The International Court of Justice reaffirmed the meaning and validity of Article 80 in three separate cases...July 11, 1950...June 21, 1971...[and] July 9, 2004... More at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2009/06/jews-have-same-right-to-settle-there-as.html