Israel, Palestinians facing U.S. pressure to restart talks
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Ghayadah said the Palestinians would need more assurances, such as a halt to the settlement construction, and an improved economic situation in the West Bank and Gaza. "We must continue to the UN, not as the end of the game; maybe it can be the beginning of the game," Ghayadah said.
MORE GUARANTEES
"First of all, the Israeli government must accept negotiations with the PNA under the agreement between Fatah and Hamas. Maybe with this step we will not go to the UN this year, but next year instead if there isn't any progress in the negotiations," Ghayadah added.
As part of an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal between the two rival factions, Fatah and Hamas singed a deal last month to form a new Palestinian unity government.
As Hamas doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist and continues to call for its destruction, Israel has refused to negotiate with such a unity government.
Despite his pessimistic outlook, Ghayadah said that "If the negotiations would go through a positive stage, and Israel formally accepts a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, we don't need to go to the UN."
LITTLE TO OFFER
Simon was quoted as saying that the U.S. is working with the Israeli government to see whether or not the Jewish state would accept Obama's principles as a basis for negotiations. But he pointed out that time is of the essence, as the UN rules say that if the resolution is to be debated by the Security Council in September, the paperwork needs to be filed by July.
Nevertheless, Prof. Joshua Teitelbaum of the Inter-Disciplinary Center in Herzliya said Washington has very little to offer Netanyahu to get him accept Obama's principles.
"The U.S. might have to sweeten the pot a little bit by mentioning refugees, which Obama didn't talk about in his recent policy speech," Teitelbaum said.
He argued that it's very unlikely that the U.S. would threat Israel with not using the veto in the UN as a way to push Netanyahu to agree to Obama's vision, since Washington has already spent too much energy and diplomatic capital to convince its European allies to prevent the Palestinian from going to the UN.
Besides the refugee issue, Teitelbaum said the only thing that the U.S. might be able to offer Israel was some form of security guarantees for a continued Israeli military presence in the Jordan valley.
