Palestinians Weigh ‘Harsh Measures’ for Israel: Abbas

[Purveyor]

By Jonathan Ferziger - Jan 3, 2012 12:23 PM ET

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he may take “harsh measures” if talks with Israel that started today in Jordan do not lead to a halt in West Bank settlement construction by Jan. 26.

The comment to reporters in Ramallah came hours before chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and his Israeli counterpart, Yitzhak Molcho, went to the Jordanian Foreign Ministry in Amman for their first meeting in more than a year. The international group known as the Quartet has asked both Israel and the Palestinians to present proposals on setting final borders between them by that date.

“We will discuss and study and decide what to do after the 26th,” Abbas told reporters at a ceremony to open a legal studies center in Ramallah. “So far I cannot reveal what the measures are because they are not ready yet, but we will take measures that might be harsh,” he said.

Abbas has said he won’t return to peace talks, which broke down in September 2010, unless Israel freezes all settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, a condition Netanyahu rejects. The Amman meeting has been presented by both sides as a preliminary step to resuming formal talks, not a new round in itself.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-03/palestinians-weigh-harsh-measures-for-israel-if-talks-fail-abbas-says.html

[bemildred]

1. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. nt

[vminfla]

2. What are thousands of rockets and mortars being fired then? a memo of intent?

Perhaps it is about time that Israel take some "harsh measures" against ongoing terrorism and aggression.

[Jefferson23]

3. A good plan: Palestinians plan diplomatic steps to put Israel under 'international siege'

Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat to meet Netanyahu's envoy in Jordan Tuesday for preliminary talks aimed at setting an agenda for peace negotiations.

By Barak Ravid, Avi Issacharoff and Natasha Mozgovaya

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's envoy Isaac Molho will meet with top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Amman Tuesday for preliminary talks aimed at setting an agenda for peace negotiations, even as the Palestinians are preparing a diplomatic campaign that aims to put Israel under "a real international siege."

Among those who have been pushing hard for the meeting Tuesday, the first official meeting between Israeli and Palestinian representatives in several months, are Jordan's King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh and the Quartet's Mideast envoy, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Senior Israeli officials said there was very little chance that the meeting would lead to the renewal of negotiations.

The diplomatic offensive the Palestinians are planning to launch later this month could include pushing the UN Security Council to pass a resolution condemning settlement construction and urging the International Criminal Court to try Israel for war crimes related to its 2008-2009 incursion into the Gaza Strip.

2012 "will be the start of an unprecedented diplomatic campaign on the part of the Palestinian leadership, and it will be a year of pressure on Israel that will put it under a real international siege," said Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha'ath, according to an Israeli Foreign Ministry document. "The campaign will be similar to the one waged against apartheid in South Africa."

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/palestinians-plan-diplomatic-steps-to-put-israel-under-international-siege-1.404973