EU apologizes for statements against settlements
Roni Sofer, Ynet, Jul 9 2009
The European Commission apologized to Ambassador Kuriel, over statements it made earlier this week claiming that the settlement policy was stifling the Palestinian economy and increasing Palestinian dependence on foreign aid, and therefore was costing European citizens in taxes. The apology was issued after EU Ambassador to Israel Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal was reprimanded by Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry Rafi Barak. A senior Commission official told Ambassador Kuriel that the statement released by the head of Operations at the European Commission’s office in east Jerusalem, Roy Dickinson, was issued without the knowledge of EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. The Foreign Ministry said in response that it was satisfied was the apology. Kuriel stressed the severity with which Israel sees Dickinson’s statement, saying that the issue was not only the lack of diplomatic manners but also the clear deviation from the Commission’s stated role, “which is to coordinate aid with the Palestinians, not arrogantly criticize Israel.” Kuriel was assured that an official communiqué had been issued to clarify that the earlier statement did not reflect the Commission’s position.
The original statement caused a storm in Israel and Europe after it was released last Monday. According to the statement, the Commission believes Israel’s settlement policy is strangling the Palestinian economy and makes the Palestinian government more dependent on foreign aid, the burden of which falls on the European taxpayer. The EU is one of the largest donors to the PA. According to the EU, expropriation of fertile land for Israeli settlements, roads that serve only settlers, and West Bank checkpoints help constrain Palestinian economic growth and make the Palestinian government more dependent on aid. Barak called the Commission out for ignoring a recent World Bank report indicating an improvement in the Palestinian economy. The Defense Ministry said:
The Mideast Quartet welcomed Israel’s plans to improve the Palestinian economy, and recognizes Israel’s right to security. Thanks to the cooperation between Israel and the PA, 140 roadblocks have been removed over the past few months. These measures may double the growth rate of the Palestinian economy from 5% to 10%. Unfortunately, all of these details were omitted from the European Commission’s statement.
But while the confrontation on the European front has abated, the US on Wednesday reiterated its demand to see a complete freeze on settlement construction. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly dismissed a report on Wednesday that it had agreed to let Israel build about 2,500 housing units already under construction in West Bank settlements. Under the arrangement reached in London on Monday, Maariv reported, Israel would be allowed to continue work on about 700 buildings already under construction on the occupied West Bank, or about 2,500 units. After the Maariv newspaper reported that Minister Barak and George Mitchell had struck such a deal, Kelly said the bottom line for Obama’s administration has not changed:
That report in that Israeli media outlet is inaccurate. All parties in the region have to honor their obligations. And you know what our position is regarding settlements. This activity has to stop. This is laid out in the roadmap. So the reports are inaccurate.
He added that Mitchell plans to travel to Israel soon to continue his discussions, adding that his talks with Barak on Monday had been “good, productive.” He gave no dates for the planned visit.
EU retracts statement on settlements
Herb Keinon, JPost, Jul 9 2009
An EU official’s statement earlier this week that settlements are strangling the Palestinian economy and costing the EU taxpayers money by fostering PA dependency on European aid does not reflect the opinion of the European Commission and was not issued with Brussels’ approval, Israel’s envoy to the EU was told Wednesday. The envoy, Ran Curiel, met Wednesday in Brussels with a senior European Commission official who distanced himself from the statement, saying it was the initiative of Roy Dickinson, the No. 2 official at the European Commissions Technical Assistance Office in east Jerusalem. According to the Foreign Ministry, and confirmed by a senior EU diplomat, Curiel was told Dickinson acted on his own initiative, and not according to directives emanating from Brussels. The positions articulated in the statement do not reflect the position of EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferraro-Waldner, Curiel was told. The European Commission has given instruction to take the statement off of all official EU Web sites. Wednesday’s meeting in Brussels came a day after Foreign Ministry senior deputy director-general Rafi Barak summonsed EU Ambassador Ramiro Cibrian Uzal to the ministry to protest the statement. According to the senior European Commission official, the unauthorized statement was part of the Technical Assistance Office’s attempt to raise its profile and not only deal with aid and technical issues, but also with political ones, something Jerusalem wants to prevent.
Emerging settlement deal will let both US, Israel claim victory
Herb Keinon, Gil Hoffman, JPost, Jul 9 2009
Israel and the US are moving toward a compromise solution on the settlement issue that might allow both sides to claim victory, the JPost has learned. According to senior government officials, Israel would declare a moratorium of a few months on the settlement issue, possibly half a year, while the US would give Israel a green light to complete a still-to-be-determined number of housing units in the settlements that are in advanced stages of construction. Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office would not confirm media reports that work on some 2,500 housing units in the settlements would continue. Obama would be able to claim a victory in getting Israel to agree to a moratorium on any new housing starts in the settlements, while Netanyahu could claim that he did not agree to a complete freeze, and that housing construction would continue. In addition, George Mitchell would continue efforts to extract normalization gestures from at least some countries in the Arab world. A State Department spokesman on Wednesday night denied the media reports on the 2,500 housing units.
Israeli officials said that Obama was continuing pushing hard on the settlement issue because of a feeling he needed some breakthrough here to be able to go to the Arab world and build coalitions to help the US deal with mounting problems in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. Once agreement is reached on the settlement issue, and the US gets some gestures from the Arab world, the next step would possibly be an event, likely an international conference, where a “to do” list would be presented regarding what needed to be done to move the diplomatic process forward. This “to do” list, according to one well-placed source, was shaping up as a revamped edition of the road map, with sequential phases and a stronger regional component, meaning that the Arab states would be asked to become involved in the normalization of ties in the early stages, rather than at the end, of the process. In addition, any new road map would have take into consideration, and deal with in detail, something that did not exist when the original road map was launched in 2003: Hamas control of the Gaza Strip.
Diplomatic sources said that the US, interested in shoring up its relations with Russia, is now much more amenable than in the past to the idea of an international conference in Moscow to launch the new initiative. The sources said the issue was discussed during Obama’s recent visit to Moscow, and that it will also be raised at the G8 meeting that opened Wednesday in Italy. According to National Security Adviser Uzi Arad, speaking at a Knesset press conference marking Netanyahu’s 100th day in office, Netanyahu expects Obama to honor the agreements reached with the Bush administration on West Bank construction. Arad revealed that ahead of Netanyahu’s meeting with Obama in May, the NSC prepared reports that articulated the US commitments in great detail. Netanyahu also quizzed Olmert in a meeting on Friday about the agreements he had reached with Bush behind the scenes. Arad said in response to a question from the JPost:
The problem is that Americans saw the situation from a different perspective than we did and it required convergence that we are working on now, The US didn’t see itself obligated by the agreements. Our demand to respect previous standpoints has necessitated the dialogue with the US continuing to this very day. Israel expects agreements to be honored.
Arad said the policy review period that the Netanyahu and Obama administrations embarked on when the two new leaders took over did not end when they met in Washington and would continue until a framework is agreed on how to proceed on the diplomatic front. Netanyahu’s policy planning director Ron Dermer vowed at the press conference that no compromises would be made on Israel’s insistence that a Palestinian state be demilitarized. He promised that the prime minister would never utter the words “Palestinian state” without the word “demilitarized” preceding them. When asked why Netanyahu waited to say those words in an address at Bar-Ilan University rather than already uttering them in Washington, Dermer said that Netanyahu purposely did so in order to emphasize his conditions for a Palestinian state before committing himself to establishing it. Channel 2 reported Wednesday night that the prime minister had told his father, 100-year-old historian Benzion Netanyahu, that he purposely set the conditions knowing that the Palestinians would never agree to them. The father said in a phone interview:
He doesn’t support it. He set conditions that they won’t ever accept. That’s what he told me. He set the conditions and they won’t accept even one of them.
Netanyahu’s office responded by accusing Channel 2 of “maliciously tricking a 100-year-old man.” Kadima released a statement saying that the interview proved that Netanyahu did not endorse a Palestinian state in good faith.
