Palestinians seek help after Netanyahu’s ‘policy disaster’

PALESTINIAN officials sought US and European help to salvage foundering peacemaking yesterday after tough terms laid out by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but stopped short of refusing to resume negotiations.

Palestinian disappointment was echoed in capitals across the Arab world, where leaders accusedNetanyahu of setting more obstacles in the path of an already stymied peace process.

Netanyahu bent to US pressure and backed down on decades of opposition to Palestinian statehood.

However, he removed from the negotiating agenda the fate of Palestinian refugees displaced by Israel’s 1948 creation and said Israel would retain sovereignty over all of Jerusalem – two issues previous Israeli governments had agreed to negotiate.

Netanyahu also said he would keep building in Jewish settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians, despite a US demand for a complete freeze.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he would not resume talks unless Israel honoured previous pledges to halt construction.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Netanyahu’s speech was so riddled with conditions that he “left nothing for negotiations”.

But he said the Palestinians didn’t want to be cast in the role of rejectionists and didn’t rule out the resumption of talks that broke off late last year.

“Netanyahu wants to put us in a situation where he looks like he offered something, and we said no,” Erekat said. “Netanyahu’s speech was very clear. He rejects the two-state solution.”

Erekat said he contacted American, European and Russian mediators in the wake of the speech and urged them to hold Israel – along with the Palestinians – to their obligations under previous peace plans. Israel is required to halt settlement construction, while Palestinians must rein in militants.

In Washington, Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for President Barack Obama, welcomed Netanyahu’s conditional acceptance of Palestinian statehood as an “important step forward”.

But he suggested more needs to be done, saying the US would work with all sides to make sure they fulfil the obligations “necessary to achieve a two- state solution”.

The EU also said Netanyahu’s speech was a step in the right direction.