Clinton Tempers Praise for Israel to Calm Arabs on Settlements
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Facing criticism from Arab leaders,Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tempered praise of Israel’soffer to restrict West Bank settlements and announced a trip toEgypt to confer with President Hosni Mubarak about the stalledMideast peace process.
Two days after hailing an “unprecedented” proposal fromIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit settlementexpansion as a move to resume peace talks, Clinton yesterdaysaid the offer “falls far short” of U.S. calls for a totalsettlement freeze.
Steps to improve West Bank security by PalestinianAuthority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister SalamFayyad “are also unprecedented,” she said, and “Israel shouldreciprocate.”
Clinton’s comments, at a two-day regional forum inMarrakech, Morocco, aimed to assure Arab and Palestinian leadersthat her positive words in Israel didn’t mean acceptance of whatshe called illegitimate Jewish settlements.
The decision to clarify her remarks underscores thedelicate balancing act the Obama administration faces in tryingto nudge Israelis and Palestinians back to the bargaining table.
Israel is obliged to freeze all Jewish settlements inoccupied territories under a 2003 framework for peace brokeredby the Bush administration. Last May, Clinton said only acomplete construction halt would be acceptable to PresidentBarack Obama. Last month, Obama referred only to “restraint”in settlement activity, not a “freeze.”
Under Fire
Clinton has come under fire from Arab leaders and media forher enthusiasm in an Oct. 31 news conference in Jerusalem overNetanyahu’s proposal to limit settlements. Hours earlier, shehad met in Abu Dhabi with Abbas, who rejected anything short ofa total settlement freeze. Her praise of the Israeli proposalwas widely seen as putting pressure on Palestinian authorities.
Before Clinton walked back her earlier remarks, AmreMoussa, secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League and asenior Egyptian diplomat, told reporters he feared the peaceprocess had been crippled by her comments in Jerusalem.
“I still wait until we have our meetings,” said Moussa,also in Morocco for the Forum for the Future conference. “Butfailure is in the atmosphere all over.”
“All of us, including Saudi Arabia, including Egypt, aredeeply disappointed” by Clinton’s words in Jerusalem, he said.She “left the impression that “Israel can get away withanything.”
Position Unchanged
Clinton, seated alongside Moroccan Foreign Minister TaiebFassi-Fihri an hour later, referred to a prepared statement whenasked if her comments had undermined trust in the peace effort.
“The Obama administration’s position on settlements isclear, unequivocal, it has not changed,” she said. The U.S.“does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israelisettlements.”
Clinton said her intent was to “offer positivereinforcement to the parties when I believe they are takingsteps that support the objective of reaching a two-statesolution.”
She said she “will also push them, as I have in public andprivate, to do even more.”
Her clarification satisfied Palestinian Foreign MinisterRiad Malki.
“We are happy that such a position was highlighted andbrought back to the right line,” Malki told reporters inMarrakech.
Two-State Solution
Palestinians “completely appreciate the sincere effortsmade by President Obama and his team” to make a settlementfreeze “a top priority,” and “believe in his sincerity in hiscommitment” to a two-state solution, Malki said.
At the same time, Malki said, the Palestinian Authority isworried that the U.S. “might reach a point where they feel thatthey cannot really push any further with the Israelis.”
Haim Malka, deputy director of the Middle East program atthe Center for Strategic and International Studies inWashington, said by telephone that Clinton “is trying to put apositive spin on the positions of both sides with the hope thatdirect negotiations can still be cobbled together.”
Calling it a “tough sell,” Malka said “the gaps betweenboth sides are so far apart right now that those negotiationsare not going to get very far” even if they start.
Cairo was added late yesterday as a last-minute destinationin Clinton’s weeklong trip from Pakistan to the Persian Gulf,Israel and Morocco.
Douse Criticism
Asked if the trip was an effort to douse criticism from oneof only two Arab states that recognize Israel, Crowley saidClinton wanted to consult with Egypt while in the region and thecountry hadn’t sent a senior official to the Morocco conference.
The U.S. must provide “guarantees about issues ofsettlements, East Jerusalem and the peace efforts in general,”Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a newsconference in Cairo the day after Clinton spoke in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu said Sept. 17 that about 2,400 new homes arealready under construction in the West Bank and plans foranother 500 or so have been approved.
The U.S. understanding of Netanyahu’s proposal to restrainsettlements is that the homes already under construction couldbe completed, while others approved or in the planning stageswouldn’t start, a senior State Department official toldBloomberg News. The prime minister has also promised not to takeover any more Palestinian land in the West Bank to expandsettlements.
Clinton said Netanyahu’s plan “falls far short of what wewould characterize as our position or what our preference wouldbe, but if it is acted upon, it will be an unprecedentedrestriction on settlements and would have a significant andmeaningful effect on restraining their growth.”
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke down in Decemberwhen Israel began a military operation in the Gaza Strip.
To contact the reporters on this story:Indira Lakshmanan in Marrakech, Morocco at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 2, 2009 21:17 ESTSource: Bloomberg
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