JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to scrap plans for a “record” 20,000 West Bank settler homes was driven by Israel’s bid to scupper an Iranian nuclear deal, observers said yesterday.
Netanyahu publicly forced his Housing Minister Uri Ariel, who had approved the plans, to back down after drawing US condemnation for a settlement project the Palestinians warned would end a fragile peace process.
Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said yesterday that all settlement plans should be “coordinated” with the premier, in cautionary remarks directed at Ariel, who himself lives in a settlement and is a member of Jewish Home, the far-right religious party in the ruling coalition.
Netanyahu had told Ariel the plan “creates an unnecessary confrontation with the international community at a time when we are making an effort to persuade elements in the international community to reach a better deal with Iran,” according to a statement from his office. His dramatic intervention to halt the plan to build what experts said would be the biggest ever batch of settler homes on occupied Palestinian territory came after fierce criticism from the US, which has been pushing for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the entire team of Palestinian peace negotiators has resigned to protest continued Israeli settlement building, two of them said yesterday, but president Mahmoud Abbas has yet to accept their resignations.
Negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh said the move was in response to “increasing settlement building (by Israel) and the absence of any hope of achieving results.”
“Until now, president Abbas has not accepted our resignation,” he added.
Shtayyeh held Israel “completely responsible for the failure of negotiations, because of the continuation and escalation of settlement building.”
Another negotiator, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the resignations. “Abbas has a number of choices here — he can refuse or accept and form a new delegation, or demand a new negotiations mechanism,” he said, referring to the possibility of indirect talks through a US team.
Following mediation by Washington, direct talks resumed in July after a three-year hiatus that was due primarily to Palestinian refusal to talk while settlement expansion continued.
Abbas had warned that he would declare the peace process over if they went ahead. He told Egyptian TV channel CBC late on Tuesday that the negotiators had presented their resignations, but that he had not yet accepted them.
State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said Washington was not only concerned by the initial announcement of the 20,000 settler homes, but also “surprised” and sought an explanation from Israel. She repeated the longstanding US position on settlements — reaffirmed by US Secretary of State John Kerry during a visit to the Middle East last week — that “we do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity”.
And Netanyahu directly linked his reprimand of Ariel to Israel’s plans to scupper a possible international deal with Israel’s arch-foe Iran over its disputed nuclear programme. “At this time, the attention of the international community must not be diverted from the main effort — preventing Iran from receiving an agreement that will allow it to continue its military nuclear program,” Netanyahu said.
Political analyst Yaakov Peri said the settlement plan weakened Israel’s position. “An announcement like that of Ariel’s undermines not only the peace talks that are running into trouble already, but also the prime minister’s efforts regarding the Iranian issue,” he told public radio. The moves came on the same day that Israel’s newly reappointed Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman pledged to work to mend relations with the United States, which have soured over the Iran nuclear issue.
But as the US strives towards a deal with the Islamic republic to freeze or curb parts of its nuclear programme, possibly in exchange for a relaxing of harsh international economic sanctions, Israel opposes what it says would be a “bad” deal. Israel has even threatened to strike Iran by itself if it feels military action is necessary.
Netanyahu said he spoke last week to the US, Russian, French, German and British leaders — five of the six world powers negotiating with Iran — and “told them that according to the information reaching Israel, the looming agreement is bad and dangerous”.
A New York Times editorial described Netanyahu’s opposition to an Iran deal as “hysterical,” particularly his comments that such an agreement would be the “deal of the century” for Tehran.AFP
