Israel, Palestine set demands
Sept. 2: Israel and the Palestinians relaunched their first direct talks in 20 months here on Thursday, setting out opening demands that started the clock on a daunting one-year deadline for a peace settlement.
But after a day of weighty symbolism and lofty rhetoric at preparatory meetings with the US President, Mr Barack Obama, at the White House, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas began sharpening their points and presenting opening demands. “We expect you to be prepared to recognise Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” Mr Netanyahu told Mr Abbas, as the two sat on either side of Ms Clinton with their national flags behind them.
The point is likely to prove sticky for Mr Abbas’s delegation which may fear it will undermine the right-of-return claims for those Palestinians who left or fled Israel when it was created in 1948.
In the wake of two Palestinian militant attacks near settlements in the occupied West Bank, Mr Netanyahu also renewed references he made at the White House on Wednesday to protecting Israel’s security.
Mr Abbas appeared conciliatory on the security front. He also said that investigations into the shootings that killed four Israelis near a settlement in the Hebron area on Tuesday were progressing.
But he also stuck to his demands on settlements. “We call on the Israeli government to move forward with its commitment to end all settlement activity and completely lift the embargo over the Gaza Strip,” Mr Abbas said.
The delegations then went behind closed doors to begin tackling the core issues that have bedeviled past peace attempts — Israel’s security, and the fate of Jerusalem.
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