Haaretz
Adar2 17, 5765
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
on Sunday criticized Israel and indirectly the United States over
settlements.
Incensed over a repeat of U.S. support for Israel's
retaining main settlement blocs in the West Bank in a peace deal, Abbas
did not name the U.S., but his target was clear.
"Any talk of
settlements that is not a discussion of stopping them is unacceptable,"
Abbas said. "Here I'm talking about the discussions of annexing settlement
blocs. This is unacceptable because this affects final status issues." The
Palestinians claim all of the West Bank.
Earlier Sunday, Israel's
Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon, responding to a controversy
surrounding American policy on the Middle East, said that President George
W. Bush unequivocally supports Israel's stance that major West Bank
settlement blocs are to be part of the Jewish state under a future peace
treaty.
On Friday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer
strongly denied a Yedioth Ahronoth report quoting him as having stated
that, contrary to Israeli statements, no understandings had been reached
between Israel and the Bush administration over the future status of the
settlement blocs.
In remarks broadcast on Army Radio on Sunday,
Kurtzer said that he had been "badly misquoted" by the
newspaper.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on Sunday called for an
investigation to determine who had leaked the alleged remarks. Shalom
noted that a text describing the meeting where Kurtzer made his alleged
remarks had been delivered to 22 Foreign Ministry members, any of whom
could have given it to the newspaper.
Attorney General Menachem
Mazuz, however, decided later Sunday that there would be no criminal probe
into how the ambassador's comments were leaked.
Shalom said he was
ready to undergo a lie detector test to disprove rumors that he was
involved in the leak.
"I would never do anything that would harm
relations between Israel and the United States," Shalom said. "I regret
the publication of Kurtzer's remarks. There was no place for
it."
Ayalon said he read the Foreign Ministry transcripts of the
meeting, and "I can state with full authority that not even one word was
mentioned regarding settlement blocs."
According to Ayalon, "The
Americans were also very surprised by this, both Kurtzer, who did not say
these words, and also the White House, which called early in the morning
to say that [the Yedioth account] was utterly baseless, and that the
understandings were in place as before.
"I even discerned a certain
astonishment and a bit of rage over the leak, and over the inaccuracy, the
distortions of the leak."
Asked if Bush was determined in his
support of Israel's stance that Ariel, Ma'aleh Adumim and other large
settlement blocs would remain within Israel's final-status borders, Ayalon
replied "Certainly. Unequivocally."
"On the basis of contacts with
all administration officials, this is certainly the position, and I stand
behind this."
Taking issue with Ayalon's interpretation, Likud
cabinet minister Yisrael Katz, an opponent of the disengagement plan,
Sunday demanded that the pullout effort be suspended until the American
administration further clarified its stance.
"The statements made
by the U.S. ambassador and the American Secretary of State - the denials
and clarifications notwithstanding - are statements of clear differences
of interpretation between the United States and Israel," Katz
said.
Rice decries 'people trying to create
confusion'
Over the weekend, the American administration reiterated
Bush's promises to Sharon
at their previous meeting in April 2004, which centered on the recognition
that the settlement blocs would remain in Israel's hands in a future final
status agreement with the Palestinians.
Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, speaking to Israel Radio over the weekend, said "We do
not appreciate people trying to create confusion where there is no
confusion."
"I understand this is a big issue in Israel but no one
should say there's no agreement between our two governments. That's wrong.
There is; it was reached on April 14 last year and it's
clear."
"While we will not prejudice the outcome of final status
negotiations, the changes on the ground, the `existing major Israeli
population centers' will have to be taken in account in any final status
negotiations," she said.
Rice went further than the vague phrasing
of Bush's letter and made it clear that the term "Israeli population
centers" refers directly to the "large settlement
blocs."
Sharon: U.S. stance on blocs remains firm
Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon said Saturday that the American agreement on the
settlement blocs stands firm.
Sharon, who fumed at the leak, said
it came from political rivals who objected to the disengagement
plan.
Sharon and Bush will discuss the continued construction in
the settlement blocs in the West Bank at a meeting Bush scheduled for two
weeks' time at the president's ranch in Texas. The Israelis are expecting
Bush to clarify the American position on this.
Israel wants the
president's promise to correspond to the facts on the ground even before
the final status settlement, so that there is an understanding that it can
continue building in Ma'aleh Adumim, Ariel, Gush Etzion and the area
around Jerusalem.
Hamas leader Mahmoud a-Zahar told Palestinian
daily Al-Quds Sunday that continued Israeli construction in the settlement
of Ma'aleh Adumim, east of Jerusalem, was a breach of a truce with
Palestinian opposition groups, a truce that Israel considers an internal
Palestinian matter.
A-Zahar refrained from threatening to resume
violent acts against Israel over settlement expansion. Violent attacks, he
said, would be resumed only if thousands of Jews would visit Jerusalem's
Temple Mount, holy to both Muslims and Jews.