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The Associated Press reports that Jordan's foreign minister says the first meetings between Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators in more than a year have ended without any significant breakthroughs.
Nasser Judeh, who hosted Tuesday's meeting in Amman, says the talks were held in a positive atmosphere.
Although he says there were no breakthroughs on matters of "substance," he says "the important thing is the two sides have met face to face."
Peace talks broke down in September 2010. The Palestinians say they will not resume talks while Israel continues to build Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel insists on talks without preconditions.
Earlier Tuesday:
The chief Palestinian peace negotiator said his first meeting with Israelis in more than a year will be a last-ditch effort to salvage the peace process and warned that the Palestinians would explore alternatives if no progress is made.
Saeb Erekat said he was holding out hope for Tuesday's meeting in Jordan, but acknowledged his expectations were low as he reiterated his long-standing demand for an Israeli freeze on settlement construction.
Without a breakthrough, he warned, the Palestinians will be forced to examine alternatives to peace talks at the end of the month. Those could include again trying for recognition at the U.N.
"The Jordanian efforts are the last-minute efforts to salvage the situation," Erekat warned.
Not formal talks
Erekat is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's peace envoy, Yitzhak Molcho, at Tuesday's meeting. It is the first time the sides are meeting since negotiations collapsed in September 2010.
Officials say the meeting is not a formal negotiating session. Instead, it is aimed at finding enough common ground to resume negotiations.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged both sides to "take advantage of this opportunity."
"The need for a lasting peace is more urgent than ever. The status quo is not sustainable and the parties must act boldly to advance the cause of peace," Clinton said.
The meeting is taking place under the auspices of the Quartet, an international group that mediates Mideast peace efforts. The Quartet, consisting of the U.S., European Union, Russia and the United Nations, has been trying to revive talks for months with the goal of forging a peace deal by the end of this year.
The Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. Israel captured all three areas in the 1967 Mideast war, though it withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
A short-lived round of peace talks broke down in September 2010 after an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction expired.
The Palestinians say they will not resume talks unless Israel stops building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. They say it is a sign of bad faith if Israel continues to build on the very lands the Palestinians claim for their independent state. The Palestinians also say Israel must agree to withdraw to its pre-1967 lines as the basis for the future border of the two countries.
Dialogue is 'only way'
Israel has rejected all of the Palestinian demands and says negotiations should start without preconditions. Netanyahu has already said he opposes a return to the 1967 lines.
Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev expressed hope that the meeting in Jordan will "bring about as soon as possible the resumption of direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians."
"The only way to achieve peace and reconciliation is through dialogue," he added.
While Israeli-Palestinian deadlock is nothing new, the situation has been complicated by recent developments.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is in the midst of reconciliation efforts with the Hamas militant group, which seized control of the Gaza Strip from his forces in 2007. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group and has warned that it cannot make peace with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas.
Hamas has sent mixed messages about Abbas' peace efforts. Hamas' supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal, has said he would not stand in the way if Abbas chooses to resume negotiations.
But in Gaza on Monday, Hamas officials urged Abbas to call off the meeting in Jordan. "We ask the Palestinian Authority to give priority to the reconciliation between Palestinians and to continue to reject any meeting or negotiations with the occupation," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
The secular Jordanian regime is also eager to counter the growing Islamist influence. A failed peace process would strengthen Islamists inside Jordan and potentially spill over from the West Bank into Jordan, whose population is already heavily Palestinian.
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Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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But I thought they were resuming talks after doing an exchange of prisoners?
save: No, real talks takes real compromise and real compromise is not pleasant to either side. This is call spinning your wheels. Until both sides take up unpopular compromise we will always be in this situation.
Talks end without a breakthrough.
Where is the news here, they will never agree on anything, let alone any type of peace treaty.
You are getting your Palestinians mixed up. Israel reached a prisoner exchange with Hamas who they consider a terrorist group. The Israelis are negotiating peace with Fatah with whom they can't seem to reach any agreement. The two Palestinian groups, Hamas and Fatah can't reach any kind of agreement between them. War between groups in the Middle East has been going on since the arrival of the second person.
How could there ever be any successful talks with people who deny you have a right to exist. Israel will be committing suicide if they negotiate with those seeking a means and opportunity to murder them.
I have actually grown tired of hearing stories about mideast peace talks because they always end the same way - the talks broke down after a last-ditch effort to save them, and Israel is still a hotbed for conflict over religion and land.
Middle East peace talks and Philadelphia Eagles playoff hopes fall in the same category. Doh - just missed it! Oh well, lets see what happens next year - but don't get your hopes up.
These people- both sides want everything to go THEIR way, or they will go P O U T !! and keep pointing
the finger at each other. They have been fighting for years & years . They [ both ] know no other way.
I had said before: An ARAB [ so not to pick ANY country ] was interviewed on T.V. some years back, asked
why ? of this situation of ARAB & JEW ? His only reply made over & over & over & over & over was " BE
CAUSE , THEY ARE JEWS " No specific's ONLY that ! ramble. No, I am of neither- JEW or ARAB decent.
I am thinking there are more "groups" wanting things to breakdown that are openly admitting it. I am talking to you isreal. (Capitol letter omitted on purpose)
Old Wolf did you eat all the chickens this morning.? The best thing the 2 sides Israel and the PA can do is buy 1000 vodoo dolls of Hamas and stick pins in them as a prelimiary to finishing off these terrorist demons who are under orders of the Nazi types in Iran.You wolf can volunteer for hamas if you want.They are now by far the most dangerous obstacle to peace in the region. Israel has been ready since 1948 to make peace with the Arabs but all they`ve gotten is suicide atrocities . You`ve been standing on your head to long old wolf ..and have a type of moral dyslexia,where you see everything upside down!!
Israel, not Isreal, old fool.
Hey olddog (oldwolf omitted just because), what in the Hell are you referring to? Are you another one of those conspiracy theory fools? Do you remember in Andy Griffin when Gomer Pyle grew a beard & suddenly thought his IQ shot up? Are you growing a beard? Just saying!!!
Bart - the Israeli army has killed far more Palestinian civilians than the number of Israelis Hamas has or ever could kill (a fact recognized both by Israel and every other country), you call Hamas and the Palestinians terrorists but what standard do you use to make that distinction? because they're Arab? because Israel are the "good guys"? so when Israel kills women and children its in the name of peace? because Israel is defending itself? against what? Palestinian attack choppers that fire rockets into crowds of people? oh wait, its Israel that uses heavy ordinance on civilians, then says they got themselves killed on purpose, your bias is so obvious, and its that type of mentality that prevents peace in the region. The idea held by you and those like you that the only peace will come from total military domination of the Palestinians, its been decades, doesnt seem to be working bro.
Mr. Relaxo, I have no problem with you reciting the arab propaganda rhetoric verbatim. If you actually took the time to open your mind and looked at other sources of information you would see that the arab propaganda machine with over 2 billion arabs around the world tries to make the Israeli (yes Cap & all) military a mirror image of the hamas but what they miss is the painstaking effort they actually put in avoiding any injuries towards all civilians.
As a Zionist, I personally believe Israelis waste their time negotiating with the arabs. The only thing they understand is power. No other country in the world has ever been able to negotiate anything with the arabs, mind you. But I am not invloved with these international BS.
Franko, Hamas doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel recognizes Palestine's right to exist, the Palestinians just want all the land and for the Israelis to disappear. If this were not the case, a peace deal with two states would have been agreed to decades ago. In 1967 the Arabs launched an all out war against Israel and lost, under no obligation to do so, Israel gave land back. The Palestinians voted Hamas into office and--once again--Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist (let alone its right to defend itself.)
lol thank you for proving my point, also there arent 2 billion Arabs, also when Israel blows up a building full of civilians and says that they "didn't want or intend" to kill those civilians it doesnt change the fact that they did kill said civilians, also the idea that the "only thing they (Arabs) understand is power" is racist, also plenty of countries negotiate with Arabs, the Saudis are supposedly our allies and there are plenty of other Arab countries that we have good relations with, also you're a propagandists who's apparently taken zero time to open your mind and look at other sources of information. and to rightly concerned i dont even know where to begin, pretty much everything you said is the opposite of the truth, and who cares if the Palestinians "recognized Israel's right to exist" Israel does exist, Palestine does not, because Israel wont allow it to exist, id say thats the worse offense, also not only do the Israelis not allow Palestine to exist, their politicians say openly that theres no such thing as a Palestinian, that they're just nomad Arabs, Egyptians and Jordanians who need to just "go home". Not only that Israel still has large amounts of land that it stole in 1967 and says that it will never give back, even though every other country IN THE WORLD says the must. lastly after half a century of brutal occupation i dont really blame the Pals for voting for Hamas, i wouldnt tolerate one year of what Israel's done
These evil bastards have been persecuted forever. The Jewish state exists because the West put them there by displacing the people who were already there. They stole it and continue with their evil ways. Now they will keep their foot on the necks of the displaced forever. Sounds like a page out of US history.
D Dirty dog and oldwolf49, you two need to be put in a kennel. Where do you get your information? Why do you bash the USA and Israel? Why don't you both catch a plane to Palestine and perform some charity work for the persecuted peoples? You don't need the dirtbag USA anyway do you?
It's history Gary, can't handle the truth? Why do you support evil? You should catch a one-way with a hijacker, 'cause the USA doesn't need you.
just another attempt to avoid the inevitable- war/ terrorism/ murder and mayhem. this all fits into tying up isreal when it should be focusing on taking out iranian weapons sites. any prudent person knows that once isreal hits the iranians all hell will break loose there. so bebe; stop the crap and send the boys east and it over with. it won't end if it doesn't start.
These peace talks are a diversion for Israel to steal more land. There will never be peace so long as Israel receives bilions of dolars in U.S. aid every year. Being in a constant state of conflict works for them.
You can' steal what's rightfully yours. The correct word is "reclaim".
"Rightfully yours?" They have no claim to the property after abandoning it centuries ago, except that "God gave it to them." Thats not enough to kick the current inhabitants out just because their American buddies give you guns, rockets, and money.
3rd party: Read up on the UN actions in the post WWII period relative to Palestine.....then offer a comment that means something....
Israelis didn't abandon their homeland, the Roman Empire kicked them out and destroyed their country.
There is so much that is being left out of the news. Let's start with Hamas PM Haniyeh telling Fatah /PA Pres. Abbas -that Hamas is not on board to cancel said palaver in Amman,Jordan. Yhen Arab news sources (al-Hayat and al-Awsat reporting that the Hamas numero uno leader Khalid Mashaal flees Damascus,Syria (their headquarters)for Jordan, previously numero dos setlled in Amman,Jordan Moussa Abu Marzouk and others with their families. Jordan allegedly asked them not to engage in politics (=terrorist activities),since the Peace Treaty Jordan promised not to let terrorists engage in attacks (rockets,missiles,suicide car bombings etc against Israel. The Hashemite Kingdom by embracing Hamas in its midst is writing perhaps its own coda.
The jews do not want peace in the middle east. They want to continue stealing lands and whining about the concentration camps. I do not feel sorry for the anti-christs that are desecrating the holy land.
Hey your bitterness over the fact you belong to a sequel religion shines through. Sorry that Christianity is just a pale imitation of the first religion to worship just one god, but sequels always suck, like star wars sequels. Maybe if Christ had not been made into something he was not there would have been peace eternally in the Middle East.
A miserable "Goyim" at that. The name suits you well.
Whining about the Concentration Camps? Maybe you would like to be shipped to Dachau, Auschwitz, Bergenholsen (sp) to be gassed, families separated, slapped around by the Nazi's while living there; all the while the Nazi's telling you are going to another city. By Train. You are stupid!
This totally shows your Ignorance--you do not know anything about the Jewish People or about Germany in the 30's; The Holocaust---it took 11,000,000 lives, and that was not all Jews; it included the disabled, other Religions, and no person who was in perfect health.
Peoole such as yourself have made a------------- of yourselve, with comments like that..
Goyim:
This is to educate yourself:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_the_names_and_locations_of_the_Nazi_concentration_camps_and_extermination_camps
Goyim, you were doing well with your argument until you mentioned concentration camps. Stick with the Jews engaged in a massive land theft and you will be fine, because thats what they are doing. The concentration camp thing sets the Jew sympathizers off, and allows them to divert the conversation to the Holocaust so they dont have to justify Israel's current illegal, immoral actions.
Hey numbnuts(goyim), get your facts straight before shooting off your bigoted mouth.
Disinterested 3rd party: Speaking of massive land theft....have you chatted with any Native Americans lately? Didn't think so.
The only losers are the ones that think concessions lead to peace. They only embolden a dedicated enemy. At best, concessions only defer defeat.
The Carter administration aided in deposing the Shah of Iran, which was the most progressive of the Arab States, in favor of a Fundamentalist Islamic uprising . He was treated by Carter, as Mubarak was treated by Obama.
Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Isn't it ironic that these two men in their misguided efforts for peace have set the state for the ultimate War. I wonder how many lives will be lost cleaning up after them.
Bill read your history. Both the Shah and Murabak were dictators who routinely tortured and killed their people. For you make the statement that Pres Carter aided in deposing the Shah clearly demonstrates your ignorance. It was the USA who assisted the Shah in escaping. Have your forgotten the Arab oil embargo imposed on us because the Shah was given refuge here to be treated for illness.
And then to involve Obama in your discertation of ignorance is ridiculous.
These men, the Shah and Murabak, through their tyranny brought about their own demise.
In the future, please get your facts straight before you make a public fool of yourself!!!!
Bill, Shah Pahlavi was our puppet. Mosaddegh was the president we overthrew.
Bill,
In the late '40s/early '50s the democratically elected government of Iran wanted to nationalize their oil fields which were owned by BP. BP asked the CIA to do something about it so they wouldn't lose their grip on Iranian oil. The CIA toppled the democratically elected Iranian government and in its place put the dictatorial Shah in power and BP kept control of Iranian oil. The Iranian people saw this and got pissed off, eventually they took matters into their own hands and toppled the Shah's puppet regime. We screwed up just to appease BP and have been paying for it ever since. No wonder the Iranians (or at least their government) don't care for the US. We have a nasty habit of making incredible blunders and failing to apologize for and fix them--especially in the Middle East. The one thing we've ever gotten right over there was returning Israel to existence.
It is impossible for two people to occupy the same space; therefore, there can never be peace.
Moses tried and failed; Joshua tried and fail; the Judges tried and fail; the Kings tried and fail; and Ms Clinton, you too will fail. That part of the world was not meant to be peaceful; it's the center that we all circle.
F__k Iran!
"Last minute bid to save Mideast peace talks." But just in case they FAIL again, KEEP SHOOTING!
Apparently lobbing rockets and mortars at Israel is a sign of food faith.
So what else is left for negotiations if the main issue (land) is not negotiable? The order in which Israel will be dismantled and the schedule thereof?
This is the true face of the Palestinians.
This is what the Hamas prime minister has to say about the peacetalks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5mEVKRKVM-0
Apparently you fail to take to account the 1400 Palestinians, mostly women and children that Israel killed in operation "cast lead". Israel did it with bomb and missile strikes as well as with tanks. Those bottle rocket attacks are just a futile attempt at retribution for the huge numbers of Palestinians killed with F16s and other American supplied weapons.
You people moan about some tiny rockets and then send huge bombs into residential neighborhoods. You should get the hell off of the Arab land, which was taken illegally, without the approval of the international community. The West bank belongs to the Palestinians according to international law.
Israelis are thieves, terrorists and parasites.
"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."
Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972.
"you people moan about some tiny rockets"
You are an ignorant fool. Rockets are flying bombs. Their capacity to kill is very strong, it's just that the terrorists shooting them have little ability to aim them. If terrorists were shooting these 'tiny rockets' at your house, I think your opinion would change pretty quickly.
And your assertion about 1400 'mostly women and children' being killed in Cast Lead is simply not true. When people spread lies about this conflict, peace as a viable alternative becomes harder for both sides.
You are quoting someone from 1972, but you are incredibly stupid for the quote chosen. If thats what Zionism is, why didn't Israel actually evict the Arabs from Israeli land? Just like so many Arab nations did to the Jews living in their lands after 1948? Israel certainly has had the ability to. And while we're quoting people about their true intentions, let's start with Hamas' leaders, the elected representative of the 'Palestinian' people. Just read their charter. They have no interest in peace, and I can say that confidently without pulling some totally random quote from 40 years ago, because they make it perfectly clear.
You call me an ignorant fool, which is against the code of newsvine. You say the rockets are so dangerous, but only about 8 people are killed for every 5000 rockets. We get more injuries in America on the 4th of July. I suggest you look up casualties of "cast lead" and you will find approximately 1400 Palestinians killed and 13 Israelis killed.
In Lebanon, it was much of the same. Over a thousand Lebanese killed, mostly civilians, as a result of massive air strikes on Lebanese cities and approximately 200 Israelis killed, mostly soldiers, who got their a$$es whipped by Hezbollah inside Lebanon, as soon as the IDF got the courage to actually fight man to man.
A complete waste of time. If Fatah merges with Hamas, any deal made between the current PA and Israel will be voided. Borders and settlements are subjects of negotiations, not preconditions.
The Arabs want all of Israel and all Jews dead. They have said it over and over again, just not in English.
See MEMRI.
Time to flatten Iran. Turn those troops around and lets burn them all. Islam is and always will be a threat to our security. Until we destroy them, we'll just keep having to go back to clean up the mess Mohammad made of the region.
Whoa, Darrell....not so fast...we can always adopt Sharia law, wrap our women in burkas, and all will be well.....or, we could just flatten Iran. Let's see...burka...flatten...burka...flatten. Ok, flatten wins out.
Typical Zionist/Jews. Kill, kill, kill and in the next breath claim Judism is a religion of peace. That attitude is one of the big reasons Jews have been so reviled, all over the world. For centuries, they have been kicked out of country after country.
RalphH--I've never heard Judaism claimed as the religion of peace. Could you please provide a reference. The God of the Old Testament is a jealous and wraithful God. Who said otherwise?
Sadly there will NEVER be peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
Palestinians are Muslims. There will never be peace between Muslims and anyone else. Read the Koran for what Muhammad says to do to non-Muslims. Look at what Muslims are doing to non-Muslims in Nigeria as we speak. Under Islam the world is divided into two parts. Dar al Islam ( house of Islam ) is the part of the world where Islam is in control. Dar al Harb ( house of war ) is all of the world that Islam does not control. It is considered by Muslims to be in a perpetual state of war ( holy war ) until Islam has subjugated it. If people would only study Islam they would know the truth of the threat the world faces.
Isreal is not the 51st state and the media should stop treating it like it is.
These "peace talks" have been going on for 40 years and frankly, I'm getting sick of hearing about them. If Israel really wanted peace it could have had it decades ago.
Israel is no more important than Bolivia or Thailand or Taiwan -- but for some reason, we're not inundated with news about them every night. The media has an obsession with Israel -- I wonder why that is...
I'm still trying to figure out how Jewish is a race when some are white, some are kinda mideastern looking, and some are black.
UDunnoBro -- And what about the cockamamy idea most liberals have that Muslims are a race. Muslims are members of the Islamic religion. Muslims are no more a race than Baptists or Buddhists or Christians or Hindus. All races are represented in all these religions.
The Muslim Brotherhood, winning elections across Egypt thanks to Obama's help in getting rid of Mubarek, say they will not recognize Israels right to exist. This cluster hump will only get worse and Obama's feckless foriegn policy is at the wheel.
Feckless? Pretty strong word to apply to an ordinary incompetent, don't you think. You trying to hurt his feelings or something? [OK...you got me...I like 'feckless']
I'm not an expert on Iran and do not trust most talking heads that claim to be, but I do have a little common sense that I have accumulated over the years. All of the non warring (?) neighbors of Iran do not want them to go nuclear.. Now being that they have dealt with them a few hundred years longer than we have, I would pay attention to that detail... The Saudi's appear to be wanting the best war planes they can get, because maybe they think, that we may be losing our taste for war and that they could be on their own. They also have offered to increase oil production to make up for any lost production from Iran, also tells me, who's side they favor; and they don't really appear to like us.
So, we may not have always been on the right side in the past and made some serious errors in judgement, but I believe we should be paying attention this time...
Hear, hear...
The Arab/ Moslems who occupy land in and around Israel do not now, or have never wanted, peace with Israel. This conference is a little more than an Arab propaganda stunt with which MSNBC and others in the MSM are assisting them. The Arab/ Moslems have said loudly and repeatedly in many languages over a very long period of time that they don't want peace with Israel and will never recognize the existence of the Jewish state. They have made it clear that what they desire is the annihilation of Israel and the extermination of the Jewish people. They will take whatever concessions they can from Israel and that will be the new frontlines in their genocidal war against the Jewish state.
The israelis should and will ignore this foolish effort.
Again, so long a Netanyahu and his cronies hold power in Israel, there can and will not be any hope for peace!
His policies toward peace defy logic. He stands with Presidents Obama and Abbas at the White Houseand poingantly comits himself and his government to statehood for the Palestinians and peace witch them. Then he reverses the moratorium on Israeli settlement on the very land the Palestinians claim for their nation, which were recognized by previous accords.
Netanyahu is a LIAR and will never make peace with the Palestinians ! America don't be fooled.
I am not at all saying the Palestinians are without fault and weaknesses of their own, because most certainly they have them starting with Hamas governing Gaza and the PLO governing the West Bank. These issues can be overcome with an honest and commited broker for peace.
Netanyahu is not that honest peace partner as he is a LIAR and cannot be trusted. His words are useless and self serving. Netanyahu is no Begin, Rabin, Barak, Sharon, or Peres. He lacks courage to do what is right because he has NO genuine commitment to peace.
His idea of peace with the Palestinians is "I will decide what lands you get and I don't care what you desire. I have no respect for your history. You want statehood, fine. But the only state you will ever have is the one I decide you will have."
It is time for the Israeli people to choose a peacemaker as their Prime Minister! Your current LIAR will only continue and exacerbate this until a new war begins. With the Arab spring the old paid off peace partners are no more. War is a very real reality and considering that the Israeli military has faired poorly in its recent efforts, beware our good Israeli citizen friends.
OK, OK....we won't be fooled. What do you suggest we do? Oh, and for all the others you named...how's the peace thing working out for them? Not so much, huh?
I have a suggestion. Stop all aid to Israel. I am voting for Ron Paul, who can help that come true.
Wow...what a shock