Israel Matzav: 'Palestinians' make additional precondition to 'proximity talks'; Meridor: They won't go anywhere anyway

'Palestinians' make additional precondition to 'proximity talks'; Meridor: They won't go anywhere anyway

The 'proximity talks' among Israel, the 'Palestinians' and US Special Middle East envoy George Mitchell were scheduled to start on Wednesday with a meeting between Mitchell and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. But they may not start on Wednesday. The 'Palestinians' have added an additional condition for starting the talks - which condition has not been made public - and that has thrown the talks' start into doubt.

Regardless, says Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, one of the two Left-leaning members of Netanyahu's inner cabinet, the talks are doomed to failure.

In an interview that will be published in full in Friday’s Post, Meridor, who is in charge of intelligence and atomic affairs, said he was afraid the Palestinians were trying to avoid making “tough decisions,” by maneuvering the US and the world into imposing a solution to the conflict.

...

Meridor said a Palestinian attempt to avoid making tough decisions and bring about an imposed solution “won’t work.”

“This won’t work,” Meridor told the Post. “And I think the Americans tell this to the Palestinians. I think the corridor we go through, the entrance we go through to the [direct] talks – indirect talks, proximity talks – will not yield results. I hope yes, but think not. Everyone will want to pull America to their own side, and they won’t get closer, [rather] they will get farther apart...

“I think we need to go quickly to direct talks, in which we’ll have to make tough decisions, and they will have to make tough decisions,” Meridor said.

No one, he said, not the US, the European Union or the UN, can decide “for us that French Hill [in northeast Jerusalem] is Palestine, or Ma’aleh Adumim [east of the capital] is Palestine. They cannot do that. We need to come to an agreement.”

And this agreement, Meridor said, will only come through direct negotiations and tough decisions by both parties. He defined tough decisions as those that go against the “expectations of your own people.”

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: 'Palestinians' make additional precondition to 'proximity talks'; Meridor: They won't go anywhere anyway