CAIRO, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The Cairo-based Arab
League(AL) said Monday that conditions set by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu for a Palestinian state were "disabling" and Netanyahu made "a
proposal to be refused."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu delivers a speech at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, June 14,
2009. Netanyahu Sunday night called on the Palestinians to resume Middle
East peace talks without preconditions and presented three conditions for
the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
(Xinhua/Pool-Baz Ratner) Photo Gallery>>>
"Arabs would not make concessions regarding issues of
Jerusalem and refugees," AL spokesman Abel-Halim el-Abiad told Xinhua, adding
that they would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
"I think that no one in the Arab World was surprised
by Netanyahu's speech because we know his history and style of evasion," he
said.
On the other hand, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
said on Monday that Netanyahu's speech complicated the situation and throttled
peace hopes in the region.
Netanyahu declared on Sunday evening that he was
prepared to see the establishment of a Palestinian state, so long as the
international community could guarantee it did not have any military
capabilities.
"Israel can not agree to a Palestinian state unless
it gets the guarantee that it is demilitarized," said the Israeli prime minister
who took office in late March, adding that Palestinians must accept Israel as a
Jewish state.
"When Palestinians are ready to recognize Israel as a
Jewish state, we will be ready for a true final settlement," he said,
emphasizing that the Jewish people have been linked to the land of Israel for
over 3,000 years and ruling out the option of granting Palestinians refugees the
right to settle within Israeli borders.
Mubarak, who attended a ceremony of the army's
Special Forces on Monday, said in his address that "the proposal to recognize
Israel as a Jewish state further complicates the situation", adding that "the
Middle East would be a scene of unrest if there is no comprehensive peace."
He stressed that "the solution to the major problems
of the Arab and Islamic worlds is through Jerusalem."
"Netanyahu's call for changing the Arab (Peace)
Initiative and dropping the refugees' right to return, would not receive support
from Egypt or elsewhere," Mubarak said.
Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a
statement that Israeli prime minister's view which is "not complete" needs to be
"developed."
"Egypt hopes to hear different Israeli proposal which
is built on the commitment to the two-state solution," it said.
Furthermore, Jordan on Monday expressed disapproval
against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call for the creation of a
demilitarized Palestinian state in his Sunday speech.
The ideas presented by Netanyahu did not live up to
what was agreed on by the international community as a starting point for
achieving a just and comprehensive peace in the region, Nabil Sharif, Jordanian
Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and government
spokesperson, said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu delivers a speech at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, June 14,
2009. Netanyahu Sunday night called on the Palestinians to resume Middle
East peace talks without preconditions and presented three conditions for
the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
(Xinhua/Pool-Baz Ratner) Photo Gallery>>>
Meanwhile, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called
for unity among Arab leaders, a day after Netanyahu endorsed, with conditions, a
Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time.
"Arab leaders should be more united and preserve the
spirit of resistance to face the Israeli stands regarding the peace process and
the Palestinian refugee issue," Suleiman said.
He called on the international community to exert
more pressure on the Israeli government to accept the Arab Peace Initiative, as
he said Israel still has a will of military confrontation which can be proved in
its offensives on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
On the Palestinian side, Palestinian National
Authority (PNA) rejected Netanyahu's conditions for resuming peace negotiations.
"Netanyahu will not find any Palestinian to talk to
under the conditions he imposed on the creation of the Palestinian statehood,"
said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator.
He added that Netanyahu's speech was "a slap in the
face" of President Barack Obama's plan to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On June 4, U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a
speech from Cairo University in Egypt, where he vowed to find a fair solution to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The administration of Obama had urged
Netanyahu to accept the two-state solution and freeze the construction of
settlements in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday said
Netanyahu's speech was "racist and radical."
"This speech shows Netanyahu's racist and radical
government and its platform, which aims at eliminating all Palestinian people's
rights," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman on Sunday.
Further, Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement called on
Arab states to withdraw the Arab Peace Initiative in response to Netanyahu's
speech.
"The misleading Netanyahu speech should motivate the
Arab regimes to cancel their initiative and stop being subjected to compromise,"
said the less influential group in a press release.
However, United States hailed Netanyahu's speech
about the creation of a Palestinian state as "an important step forward."
"The president (Barack Obama) welcomes the important
step forward in Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech," White House spokesman Robert
Gibbs said in a statement when he commented Netanyahu's two-state speech.
"The president will continue working with all parties
-- Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Arab states, and our Quartet partners --to
see that they fulfill their obligations and responsibilities necessary to
achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a
comprehensive regional peace," the White House statement said.
Earlier on Sunday, U.S. special envoy for the Middle
East George Mitchell concluded his latest swing through the Middle Eastin a
renewed attempt to push forward the long-stalled peace process.
JERUSALEM, June 15 (Xinhua)
-- Israel's media on Monday took varying positions on Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's major diplomatic policy speech on Sunday, with most agreeing that he
had made an important step in unifying the Israeli people.
"He did the right thing. Without
stuttering or blinking he placed seven words at the center of the political
arena: A demilitarized Palestine alongside a Jewish Israel," said Ari Shavit in
an article on Ha'aretz, Israel's prominent left-wing daily. Full story
GAZA, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Palestinians
harbor a high anticipation after U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a
historic speech from Cairo on June 4 to the Muslims, but their hope for a
statehood evaporated following the Israeli prime minister's remarks on the
future of peace in the Middle East.
In Sunday's speech at Bar Ilan
University in Tel Aviv, Benjamin Netanyahu called for peace with the Arabs and
the Palestinians, but he conditioned the establishment of a demilitarized
Palestinian state on the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Full story
JERUSALEM, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday evening declared that he was prepared
to see the establishment of a Palestinian state, so long as the international
community could guarantee it did not have any military capabilities.
Netanyahu made the remarks while he
delivered a highly-anticipated foreign policy speech at the Begin-Sadat Center
for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University. Full story
JERUSALEM, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done what many analysts thought he would never
do: voicing support for the establishment of a Palestinian state, although with
conditions.
In a long-anticipated major diplomatic
policy speech on Sunday, he said that should the Palestinians recognize Israel
as "the state of the Jewish people" and guarantee that their future state would
be demilitarized, Israel "will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a
solution where a demilitarized Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish
state." Full story