[Peace] Haaretz: Israel Fears Diplomatic Whirlwind Looming in President Obama’s Final Days

[Robert Naiman]

http://forward.com/news/358327/israel-fears-diplomatic-whirlwind-looming-in-
president-obamas-final-days/


Israel Fears Diplomatic Whirlwind Looming in President Obama’s Final Days

Barak Ravid (Haaretz)
December 26, 2016

Israel fears that the United States and France want to advance another move
on the Israeli-Palestinian issue before President Obama leaves office on
January 20.

A senior official in Jerusalem said that during Sunday’s security cabinet
meeting, ministers were presented with an assessment that during the
international foreign ministers’ meeting scheduled for January 15 in Paris
as part of the French peace initiative, a series of decisions on the peace
process will be made. These will immediately be brought to the UN Security
Council for a vote and will be adopted there before January 20.

The move presented to the ministers led Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to tell the Likud ministers during their subsequent meeting that Friday’s
vote in the Security Council on the settlements was not the end of the
story and that there are liable to be other steps taken by the
international community, the official added.

Representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the National Security Council and
others who attended the security cabinet meeting presented information
indicating that the trend in talks between France, the U.S. and other
countries in preparation for the foreign ministers’ meeting tended toward
advancing such a move, he added.

According to the information that Israel has, U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry wants to utilize the foreign ministers’ parley, which will be
attended by representatives of dozens of countries, to deliver an address
that presents his vision for the two-state solution. The senior official
said that Israel fears this address will include American principles for
resolving the core issues of borders, refugees, security arrangements and
Jerusalem.

“The Foreign Ministry and the National Security Council spoke about
information to the effect that what is planned is that the foreign
ministers’ meeting in Paris will make a summary decision that will be
adopted by the Quartet [on the Middle East] and by the UN Security Council
before January 20,” the senior official said. “Israel believes this is an
operative plan and the assumption is that the Americans are leading it all,
together with the French.”

It was such a fear about the foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris that led
Netanyahu to instruct his ministers to avoid public statements to the media
about launching a wave of settlement construction or annexing parts of the
West Bank in response to Friday’s Security Council resolution.


“The effort now is to see how to prevent such a move at the Paris
conference,” the senior official said. “That’s why there is no need to
provoke and no need to do anything to add fuel to this.”


Earlier on Sunday, Netanyahu summoned the American ambassador to Israel to
clarify matters over the UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli
settlements. Netanyahu has also stepped up the diplomatic response to the
UN vote and ordered the government to reduce ties with the 12 countries
that supported the resolution.



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Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1 <(202)%20448-2898>
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