Israeli Official Says Paris Peace Conference Will 'fail'

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A senior Israeli official is predicting that France's Mideast peace conference will "completely fail," saying Israel prefers a regional process that would include Arab states.

Dore Gold, the director of Israel's Foreign Ministry, says "the only way to make peace" with the Palestinians is through direct negotiations with no preconditions.

Gold spoke to reporters Thursday, a day before the Paris conference begins. Israel has indicated an openness recently to some elements of an Arab peace proposal from 2002, which promised peace and recognition of Israel in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state. Gold gave no indication of any movement on that proposal.

France hopes its conference will revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_FRANCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-06-02-14-38-04

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Saeb Erekat: Paris Peace Summit Will Equalize Power Between Israel and Palestine

Secretary General: 20 years of bilateral negotiations have failed. The international community must compel Israel to accept its responsibility as the occupying force and implement the two-state solution.

Saeb Erekat Jun 02, 2016 10:32 PM

With the 50th anniversary of Israel’s military and colonial occupation of Palestine coming to a head, we have reached a critical juncture within the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. For over 20 years, bilateral negotiations between Israel and Palestine failed on account of Israeli intransigence over its refusal to recognize Palestinian national rights and the continuation and expansion of its settlement enterprise.

In fact, the number of Israeli settlers transferred into occupied Palestine has nearly quadrupled since the beginning of the “peace process,” yet Israel continues to enjoy impunity and is not held accountable. It is now critical to move from an imbalanced bilateral track between an occupied and occupier refusing to uphold basic principles of international law, to a broader framework whereby the international community assumes its responsibility to implement international law and see the realization of the two-state solution through sustained and effective engagement.

The French Initiative is the flicker of hope Palestine has been waiting for and we are confident that it will provide a clear framework with defined parameters for the resumption of negotiations. The international conference should be viewed as an opportunity to create a negotiating environment in which power is equalized and law and human rights prevail. The conference should not concern itself with how to grant impunity for Israeli violations but rather, with how to respect and uphold the principles of the UN Charter and of peace-loving, law abiding nations.

Palestine seeks the same rights and responsibilities enjoyed by other states, and accordingly, any negotiations and permanent status agreement should reflect that. Specifically, the conference must embody the basic principle of sovereign equality, and focus on the implementation and the materialization of Palestinian independence on the ground within a clear framework and timeline. Although a ray of hope, we are under no illusions that this conference will miraculously result in the immediate end of Israel’s settler-colonialism. Rather, we see this conference as a long overdue commitment by the international community to compel Israel to accept its responsibility as the occupying force and recognize that the way forward is to implement the two-state solution before it’s too late. 


read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.722924

[forest444]

1. Translation:

"We would flout it even if it came from God Himself - especially if it came from God Himself."

[6chars]

2. France won't even protect their own Jews

and the recently voted in UNESCO that Jews have no historical connection with the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Now they are having a conference without inviting the primary players.

They may succeed at something, but not at bringing peace.

[geek tragedy]

3. Got a link for the claim that France voted that Jews had no connection with the Western Wall?

Last I heard it was a looney-tunes motion being circulated by some Arab states but never got a vote.

[Purveyor]

4. This 'primary player' was invited: Israel Tells France It’s Not Interested In Multilateral Peace

Israel Tells France It’s Not Interested In Multilateral Peace Talks

Source: Washington Post

By William Booth May 15 at 4:09 PM

JERUSALEM — French officials said Sunday they will continue to press ahead with plans to host a multilateral Middle East peace conference later this year, despite hearing, in blunt language, that Israel doesn’t really like the idea.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday to promote what diplomats are calling the “French Initiative,” a still evolving and admittedly vague diplomatic project that seeks to bring global attention to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and find consensus among the international community on how to move forward with a two-state solution.

The French are planning to host about 30 foreign ministers — from Europe and the Middle East as well as Russia, China and India — at a preparatory meeting at the end of this month, which could lead to a peace conference later this year.

Read more: http://news.google.com/news/url?sr=1&ct2=us%2F1_0_s_2_1_a&sa=t&usg=AFQjCNEZwXVUXcpZYbfcxz_Pp2hjEpTTFA&cid=52779107569408&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fworld%2Fmiddle_east%2Fisrael-tells-france-its-not-interested-in-multilateral-peace-talks%2F2016%2F05%2F15%2F30110796-1aab-11e6-82c2-a7dcb313287d_story.html&ei=7fI4V6eJJJSDhQGFxpkw&rt=HOMEPAGE&vm=STANDARD&bvm=section&did=-8375188575880416079&sid=en_us-w&ssid=w&st=1&at=dt0

[6chars]

5. False

Your link does not say Israel was invited.

Israel and the Palestinians have not been invited to the French-sponsored foreign ministers meeting.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.719994

"Neither Israel nor the Palestinians were to be invited to the summit on 30 May, which is expected to include some 30 countries and international organisations – including the “Quartet” of the UN, the EU, Russia and the US – though they would be expected to attended the peace conference slated for later in the summer."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/28/israeli-prime-minister-binyamin-netanyahu-rejects-french-peace-conference-initiative-palestinians

You can find the same information at dozens of news links.