Israel said set to accept Kerry’s framework proposals

[Jefferson23]

Israel is set to give its wary assent to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s framework peace proposal as the basis for continuing talks with the Palestinian Authority through to the end of 2014, Channel 2 news reported on Saturday night.

The TV report said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman are all inclining to accept the US framework terms, some of which were detailed by Martin Indyk, the State Department’s lead envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, in a conference call with American Jewish leaders on Thursday. The framework document would have to be finalized in the next few weeks, ahead of a scheduled fourth and final phase of Palestinian prisoner releases set for March, the report said.

The US framework document, whose terms will not have to be signed off as fully binding by the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships, provides for talks on Palestinian statehood based on the pre-1967 lines with land swaps to enable 75 to 80 percent of settlers to come under Israeli sovereignty, relates to Israel as the Jewish state, provides for compensation for refugees but no Palestinian “right of return,” and does not go into detail on the fate of Jerusalem, Indyk indicated.

Well-placed political sources told The Times of Israel at the weekend, meanwhile, that Netanyahu’s agreement to continue peace talks on the basis of the framework proposal need not provoke a coalition crisis with the right-wing Jewish Home party. Provided the framework deal was not binding and was not brought to a government vote, the sources said, the party’s leader, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, would likely not choose to bolt the coalition over it.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-said-set-to-accept-kerrys-framework-proposals/

[Jefferson23]

1. New details from peace talks: Americans offer parts of Negev to Palestinian refugees

In latest leak from peace talks, report claims US suggests Palestinians get swaths of Negev land in return for settlement blocs. Offer meant to satisfy West Bank Arab leaders, who will be expected to give up idea of having right of return

Itamar Eichner
Published: 02.02.14, 13:09

The 1947 UN Partition Plan for a Jewish and Arab State offered the Jews settlements along the Mediterranean coast, towns in the Jezreel Valley, and as a gift to appease the fledging nation, the UN also awarded the new to be born state with the Negev – an arid desert area, which became 60% of Israel's territory.

More than 60 years later, in an attempt to guarantee the success of the peace talks, the American administration has surprisingly decided to turn back the clock and put the desert back on the negotiating table. This time, however, it is being offered to the Palestinians.

According to the plan, Palestinian refugees will be sent to areas in the desert in a land swap deal, which will be governed by the Palestinian Authority. The offer is meant to lay some sweet lines on the Palestinians, who will be expected to give up their idea of having the right of return implemented into any peace deal.

According to the US Mideast peace envoy, Martin Indyk, roughly 75%-85% of Jewish settlers will be allowed to remain in their West Bank homes as part of land swaps between Palestinians, which will be based on the June 4, 1967 Green-Line. In return Israel would have to give up territory, of which a significant chunk would come from the Negev.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4483738,00.html