PM Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
Since CIA Director Leon Panetta has declared his absolute determination to get Israel back to “the damn table” in order to start negotiations with the Palestinians, perhaps Panetta should address himself to those self-same Palestinians who once again are refusing to come to the accursed table.
Israel proposed, and the Palestinians rejected, a call to resume direct negotiations when the Quartet representatives come to Jerusalem Wednesday, Israeli officials said Sunday.
<snip> …
The Quartet’s original plan for Wednesday was to meet separately with Israeli negotiator Yitzhak Molcho, and his Palestinian counterpart, Saeb Erekat. Israel, according to officials in Jerusalem, relayed a message that this would be a good time to resume direct talks.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, said the Quartet informed Israel the Palestinians were unwilling to do so. The Palestinians are conditioning a return to talks on a complete freeze of Israeli construction beyond the Green Line and the acceptance of the pre-1967 lines as the basis for talks.
“We are disappointed and frustrated by the Palestinian leadership’s repeated refusal to engage directly with Israel,” Regev said.
“They say they believe in peace, but it is very difficult to square this rejectionist position – a position that boycotts sitting at the table with Israel – with their stated aim of supporting peace and reconciliation.”
<snip>…
But a Palestinian official on Sunday expressed “surprise” regarding the Quartet’s request for direct talks between the sides.
The Palestinians won’t hold direct or indirect talks with Israel unless it halts construction in settlements and east Jerusalem and accepts the pre-1967 lines as the basis for a twostate solution, a PA official in Ramallah reiterated Sunday.
The official said this stance has been repeatedly relayed to representatives of the Quartet during their recent visits to the region.
The official also expressed “surprise” the Quartet representatives were now seeking to hold direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
He said the Quartet plan, which was published last September, does not call for direct talks between the two parties.
Perhaps if the Quartet and officials like Panetta would stop attacking Israel and blaming it for any lack of progress in peace talks, the Palestinians would grow up and come to the negotiating table without pre-conditions. It’s about time someone told them outright that they need to enter into direct negotiations but no wonder the Palestinians are surprised. Reality is hitting them in the face. Perhaps now something might move in the Middle East.
Anne's Opinions 
Has anyone told the Palestinians that they LOST the 1967 War–TOO?! No do-overs. They keep starting wars they don’t win, then demand to push Israel back–well, let’s face it, to the sea. If only there was an American President with the “guts” to tell the truth!
A priori, Leslie, the “Palestinians” got their statelet in ~1920-22, when the British illegally hived off Mandate Arab-Palestine by creating the “Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” through the San Remo conventions, later ratified by the Treaty of Sevres and the League of Nations. Approximately 2/3 of Jordanians are “Palestinians”, ie., disparate Levantine Arabs who ended up in Jordan after 1948. A two-state solution has now existed for nearly a century; Ben Gurion’s failure was not to advance forcefully the facts of San Remo in the lead-up to ’48.
Gingrich certainly stated the truth recently regarding the invented “Palestinians”, but without enunciating the legal basis on which his statements were made. Pity..
A lengthy, but interesting MEF review of Jordan:
http://www.meforum.org/3121/jordan-is-palestinian
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