JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 33:8
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Building Freeze instead of Terrorist Releases?-Former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin pushes construction freeze as a means of saving peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.By Uzi Baruch and Tova Dvorin-First Publish: 3/31/2014, 3:38 PM-ISRAELNATIONALNEWS
Former Israeli Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) head Yuval Diskin strongly criticized the practice of releasing terrorists as a preconditon to peace talks, and joined left-wing MKs in suggesting that a building freeze in Judea and Samaria is a better option for "gestures" to the Palestinian Authority (PA). "We should remember that this terrorist release move would not have taken place at the current timing and could have been postponed to advanced stages of the negotiations, had there been a willingness to freeze settlement construction – even temporarily," Diskin claimed, in an article published in Yediot Aharonot on Monday." Such a move could have been of great value to the Palestinians, and I believe it contains diplomatic and political logic, not to mention the fact that it is a reversible move which could be canceled later on – unlike the release of terrorists." Diskin also attacked the leadership of the Jewish Home party and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - as he has in the past - and noted that the first batch of terrorist releases was carried out relatively quietly. According to Diskin, this was due to a political deal between the Prime Minister and Jewish Home - the latter of which plays a large role in resistance to the terrorist releases, in his words. "The first stage of the terrorist release went by relatively peacefully, mainly due to a political deal which was likely devised between the prime minister and the leader of Jewish Home, the party which is now playing the role of leading the opposition to the release," he accused. "As part of the deal, Jewish Home would turn a blind eye to the deeply controversial release in exchange for 'hush money' in the form of new settlement construction bids for every stage." The claim that the Jewish Home agreed to a prisoner release in exchange for continued construction in Judea and Samaria has been strenuously denied by the party. The Palestinian Authority has similarly denied that any such deal ever took place, and insists that Israel must freeze all construction in Judea-Samaria if talks are to continue beyond the end of April. It is worth noting, however, that a "settlement freeze" was never stipulated as a precondition to the current talks.Diskin stressed that he is "firmly against releasing terrorists under pressure or under extortion of any kind of terror attack for the purpose of bargaining, even at the cost of failing to free a kidnapped soldier or citizen" and noted that he is "saying this as a father to three children who are serving simultaneously in IDF combat units." "I believe that even if this decision is completely legal as far as the government is concerned, such a release under pressure impairs the State of Israel's deterrence ability, conveys weakness, encourages additional acts of terror for the purpose of bargaining, re-strengthens the terror infrastructures and seriously hurts the feelings of the terror victims' families and broad parts of the Israeli public," he continued.
"On the other hand, I do believe that in special cases a government can make a decision to release terrorists – at its own initiative – in order to advance a peace process, but not under extortion or pressure from a terror organization or a different country." "In light of its high public sensitivity, such a move should be postponed as much as possible to the latest stages of the negotiations when there have already been significant achievements or progress and when it can be explained to the public and to the families of terror victims." Turning to calls for the government to "balance-out" any release of Arab terrorists by releasing the handful of Jewish terrorists currently in Israeli jails, Diskin said the two cases cannot be compared."I also find serious fault in the idea to bind the release of Palestinian terrorists with the release of Jewish terrorists. I see no justification for terror attacks committed by Jewish citizens of the State of Israel, a country which has a strong army, a security agency, a secret service and a police," he declared. "When the state's citizens take the law into their hands and use terror against innocent people, they are committing a serious and dangerous act like no other, and should be treated with extra severity." "A merciful attitude towards such cases, as we have already seen in the State of Israel in the 'Jewish Underground' case, is wrong, and could encourage a repeat of this outline and undermines our moral justification for seriously punishing those involved in terror on the Palestinian side," he continued. "And so, political deals which bind the release of Jewish terrorists in order to 'sweeten the bitter pill' of releasing Palestinian terrorists are fundamentally wrong in my opinion." Diskin concluded the article by saying that a freeze would continue talks with the PA while also breaking "a situation of an ongoing act of terror for the purpose of bargaining, without any real return in the form of peace," in his words. To him, the move would save both sides from admitting that "talks are a failure" and the Israeli public from confusion over the releases, which he notes "have lacked any diplomatic benefit so far."
Kerry Makes Sudden Unannounced Israel Visit in Bid to Save Talks-In an attempt to salvage failing peace talks, Kerry makes another visit to Israel to meet with Netanyahu, Abbas.-By Ari Yashar-First Publish: 3/31/2014, 2:32 PM-ISRAELNATIONALNEWS
US Secretary of State John Kerry will be making another visit to Israel on Monday, in yet another attempt to save the failing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).The sudden visit was revealed to AFP by State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki. Kerry was reportedly considering the visit while in Paris on Sunday, and later Sunday night called Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in what apparently was an effort to coordinate the last-minute visit."Our negotiating team has been working with both parties on the ground to help them agree on a path forward, and Secretary Kerry has kept in close touch with his counterparts by phone," Psaki noted. "After consulting with his team, Secretary Kerry decided it would be productive to return to the region."Psaki reported that Kerry will be in Israel on Monday and Tuesday, and aside from meeting Netanyahu in Jerusalem will likely meet PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Kerry interrupted a trip to Rome to meet with Abbas just last Wednesday, amid the failing talks."Over the course of the last eight months, the Israelis and Palestinians have both made tough choices, and as we work with them to determine the next steps, it is important they remember that only peace will bring the Israeli and Palestinian people both the security and economic prosperity they all.deserve," Psaki added.While in Paris on Sunday, Kerry told reporters that it was not yet appropriate for the US to make any public judgement about the peace talks "at this important moment.""It's really a question between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and what prime minister Netanyahu is prepared to do," Kerry stated. "We'll see where we are tomorrow when some judgments have to be made."The fourth and final batch of terrorist releases was refused by Israel on Saturday. Netanyahu reportedly told Kerry that if the release went through it risked toppling his government, given the widespread protest of the unpopular "gesture" to promote the peace talks.The PA has threatened that it will go to the UN this week in unilateral moves for international recognition, in violation of the peace talk conditions, if the terrorists were not released. It has yet to follow through on that threat.Abbas has brought the talks to a loggerhead by adamantly refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish state. Kerry's visit apparently aims to deal with the massive difficulties faced on all fronts by the peace talks he initiated.
Israel hands Palestinians proposal to extend peace talks-US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with Netanyahu from Paris in bid to salvage peace talks on the verge of collapse.-By AFP March 31, 2014, 6:08 am 13-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel on Sunday handed the Palestinians a proposal they hope will lead to an extension of their peace talks beyond an April 29 deadline, as efforts to salvage the negotiations came to a head.The fate of the US-brokered peace process could be decided within days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier, warning that “either the matter will be resolved or it will blow up.”Netanyahu’s remarks to ministers from his rightwing Likud party came as US officials were working around the clock to prevent a collapse of the negotiations over a dispute about Palestinian prisoners.“In any case, there won’t be any deal without Israel knowing clearly what it will get in exchange,” Netanyahu said.According to a Palestinian official, Israel presented Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with a draft agreement to relaunch talks. Abbas was to examine the proposal during the night, he said.An Israeli official would not provide details on the proposal but told AFP: “Now the Palestinians need to reply if they are willing to continue negotiations.”With the talks teetering on the brink of collapse, Washington, which pushed the sides to relaunch talks in July, has been fighting an uphill battle to coax them into accepting a framework proposal which would extend the negotiations beyond April 29.But the issue has become tied up with the fate of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners who Israel was to have freed this weekend under the terms agreed to relaunch talks.Israel on Friday informed the Palestinians they would not free the prisoners, with the US State Department confirming it was working “intensively” to resolve the dispute.US officials said Secretary of State John Kerry, in Paris Sunday, spoke with Netanyahu.After those talks, Kerry told reporters in the French capital that it was not yet appropriate for the US to make any public judgement of the situation “at this important moment.”“It’s really a question between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and what prime minister Netanyahu is prepared to do,” he added.“We’ll see where we are tomorrow when some judgments have to be made.”Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said “this is a critical week for the Israeli-Palestinian issue” noting Kerry’s “efforts” and the “commitment and contribution of President (Barack) Obama towards this endeavor.”Ya’alon, who made the remarks during a meeting with chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff General Martin Dempsey, had recently criticized Washington’s foreign policy and reportedly called Kerry’s peacemaking efforts “obsessive” and “messianic.”The Palestinians say they will not even consider extending the talks without the prisoners being freed, but Israel has refused to release them without a Palestinian commitment to continue the talks, prompting a fresh crisis of confidence.“We agreed to the fourth batch,” Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told reporters on Sunday, while stressing it would not happen as long as Abbas was preparing to “blow up the negotiations” the very next day.President Shimon Peres, from a visit to Austria, said the sides were “working around the clock in an effort to reach a breakthrough in the talks.”“I hope that in the coming days there will be positive developments in the negotiations,” he said.
‘Ball in Israel court’
“The ball is now in Israel’s court,” Palestinian prisoners minister Issa Qaraqaa told Voice of Palestine radio, saying the leadership was expecting an answer from the Israeli government within 24 hours.Aside from the release of the 26 veteran detainees, Abbas reportedly wants an Israeli commitment to free more prisoners as one of his conditions for agreeing to extend the talks.An Israeli official told AFP on Saturday that Israel was willing to free the prisoners but the Palestinians were “creating difficulties.”Under the deal that relaunched peace talks, Israel agreed to release 104 prisoners held since before the 1993 Oslo peace accords in exchange for the Palestinians freezing all efforts to seek further international recognition.So far, Israel has freed 78 of them in three batches, and the last group — which the Palestinians insist includes 14 Arab Israelis jailed for terrorist attacks — was to have been released on March 29.
Abbas demanded release of Palestinian leaders’-PA president told Obama that negotiations will not continue without mass prisoner release, settlement moratorium, official says-By Elhanan Miller March 31, 2014, 3:23 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas presented to US President Barack Obama two conditions for extending the deadline for negotiations with Israel: a complete settlement freeze, and the release of some 600 prisoners based on a set of Palestinian-determined criteria, a Palestinian official told The Times of Israel on Monday.Kadoura Fares, a former Palestinian minister and current head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a nongovernmental organization dealing with prisoners’ rights, said that during his meeting with Obama in the US on March 17, Abbas demanded the release of three Palestinian leaders sentenced to long prison terms by Israel during the Second Intifada for their involvement in terror activities, in addition to a complete moratorium on settlement construction.The three leaders are Fatah official Marwan Barghouti, convicted of five counts of murder in 2004; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Secretary General Ahmad Saadat, sentenced by a military court in 2008 for his involvement in the assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi; and Fouad Shoubaki, a close associate of Yasser Arafat, sentenced in 2009 to 20 years in prison for his involvement in organizing the smuggling of arms into the Palestinian territories in 2002 aboard the ship Karine A.In addition, Abbas demanded the release of severely ill prisoners, estimated by Fares to number 100-120; 19 women; children under the age of 18; and prisoners held by Israel in administrative detention. Fares estimated the total number of prisoners falling into those categories at 600.He expected that the only group of prisoners to upset Israeli public opinion would be the three leaders.“If Israel wants to place hurdles, it will focus on Ahmad Saadat and Marwan Barghouti. It will whine that they are so dangerous, which is of course not true,” Fares said.“As for the others: The sick prisoners will be transferred directly from prison to hospitals — we’re talking about chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, paralysis or severe psychiatric issues; the women — none of them did anything that can cause a problem in Israeli public opinion, only trivial things; the children [were arrested] for stone throwing; and the administrative detainees were never indicted, and include 11 elected members of the Legislative Council,” he said.The Palestinian leadership will “under no circumstances” agree to forgo the release of 14 Israeli Arabs expected to be included in the final phase of prisoner release this week, Fares added.“The Israeli prisoners are an integral part [of the deal], and it’s a matter of life and death. No one has the legitimacy to give them up,” he said.The Times of Israel reported on Saturday that Israel offered to release 400 prisoners in exchange for a Palestinian agreement to extend negotiations until the end of the year.Responding to the report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the prisoner issue will be resolved “within days,” but insisted that Israel would free no more prisoners unless it knows exactly what it will get in return.The release of Israeli Arab prisoners would require a special Israeli government vote, which has so far not been scheduled.“We must stop the old and miserable Israeli habit of treating the [Palestinian] prisoners as numbers, as a herd,” Fares said on Monday. “We should not cite numbers at all, but focus on criteria. The Palestinian leadership should be party to setting the criteria; it’s not an exclusive matter for Israel to deal with, or a domestic Israeli issue.”On Monday evening, Abbas is scheduled to meet with the PLO’s Executive Committee, an 18-member body comprising the movement’s senior leadership. Fares said Abbas would update the leadership on the situation and reach operative decisions.“If we remain stuck, I don’t think Abu Mazen (Abbas) and the leadership will agree for things to remain stuck for long. We must proceed to real negotiations, not for negotiations to serve as cover while Israel continues building settlements.”
PA: Talks can go on if Israel frees 1,000 prisoners-Abbas also demands settlement freeze and transfer of some Area C regions to the Palestinian control-By Avi Issacharoff March 30, 2014, 4:09 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Palestinian leadership presented an offer to American mediators – that Israel release 1,000 more prisoners, of the Palestinian Authority’s choosing and in exchange, peace talks would be extended until the end of 2014. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also demanded that Israel freeze settlement construction and transfer some Area C regions to the Palestinian Authority’s control.The Palestinian Authority was holding intensive talks Sunday to discuss the matter further.On Saturday, The Times of Israel learned from a Palestinian source that Jerusalem, backed by Washington, offered to release 400 more prisoners of Israel’s choosing, in addition to a fourth and final group of longtime terrorism convicts who were set to go free this weekend – on the condition that the Palestinian Authority agrees to prolong the ongoing negotiations beyond the April 29 deadline.Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who has resigned several times since peace talks started up again in July under US mediation, said Sunday that he was still holding talks with Jerusalem and Washington, far from the public eye.On the prisoner release that was meant to take place Saturday, Erekat said it might still be carried out, as Israel was obligated to release inmates imprisoned before the Oslo Accords.Erekat stressed that Abbas was making every effort to secure the prisoners’ release independent of any agreement to extend the talks. In return, the Palestinians would continue to abide by their obligation to refrain from applying to UN and other international bodies for the duration of the talks.On Saturday, some sources claimed Israel was holding off on freeing the prisoners because of rumors that the PA would back out of peace talks once the fourth group of convicts was released. Israel has also balked at releasing Israeli Arabs.As of Saturday evening, however, Abbas was insisting that the prisoners be released before he would consider extending the talks beyond their current deadline.Saturday’s offer had stipulated that Israel would determine which additional 400 security prisoners would go free, Palestinian sources said.Israel is said to be holding close to 5,000 Palestinian security prisoners.Jewish Home’s Uri Ariel, the minister of housing and construction, was said to be ready to recommend that his right-wing party leave the coalition if the release of the extra prisoners goes through. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, a member of Netanyahu’s own Likud party, told Israel Radio Saturday night that he was against the release of all further prisoners, and that moves to free them should be stopped immediately, particularly “since there hasn’t been any forward movement in the peace process.”The Minister of Prisoners in the PA, Issa Karake, on Saturday night urged Abbas to leave the negotiations and instead take the cause of Palestinian statehood to the UN and other international organizations if Israel does not release the fourth group of prisoners within the next few days.State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday night, “In regard to reports this evening on an agreement on the release of prisoners, no deal has been arrived at, and we continue to work intensively with both sides. Any claims to the contrary are inaccurate.”Meanwhile, US Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations Martin Indyk met with Erekat and Israel’s envoy to the peace talks, Yitzhak Molcho, in Jerusalem Saturday night. Erekat was quoted by Army Radio saying he believed the deadlock would be broken and the fourth group of prisoners would go free early in the coming week.Earlier Saturday, it was reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told US Secretary of State John Kerry that he feared his coalition could fall apart if Israel frees the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners who were slated for release this weekend — among them 14 Israeli Arabs.Citing sources in the Palestinian Authority, the London-based pan-Arab al-Hayat newspaper reported that US negotiators had told Abbas Netanyahu feared his coalition, which includes the right-wing Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu parties, might disintegrate over the prisoner release.
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 33:8
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Building Freeze instead of Terrorist Releases?-Former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin pushes construction freeze as a means of saving peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.By Uzi Baruch and Tova Dvorin-First Publish: 3/31/2014, 3:38 PM-ISRAELNATIONALNEWS
Former Israeli Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) head Yuval Diskin strongly criticized the practice of releasing terrorists as a preconditon to peace talks, and joined left-wing MKs in suggesting that a building freeze in Judea and Samaria is a better option for "gestures" to the Palestinian Authority (PA). "We should remember that this terrorist release move would not have taken place at the current timing and could have been postponed to advanced stages of the negotiations, had there been a willingness to freeze settlement construction – even temporarily," Diskin claimed, in an article published in Yediot Aharonot on Monday." Such a move could have been of great value to the Palestinians, and I believe it contains diplomatic and political logic, not to mention the fact that it is a reversible move which could be canceled later on – unlike the release of terrorists." Diskin also attacked the leadership of the Jewish Home party and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - as he has in the past - and noted that the first batch of terrorist releases was carried out relatively quietly. According to Diskin, this was due to a political deal between the Prime Minister and Jewish Home - the latter of which plays a large role in resistance to the terrorist releases, in his words. "The first stage of the terrorist release went by relatively peacefully, mainly due to a political deal which was likely devised between the prime minister and the leader of Jewish Home, the party which is now playing the role of leading the opposition to the release," he accused. "As part of the deal, Jewish Home would turn a blind eye to the deeply controversial release in exchange for 'hush money' in the form of new settlement construction bids for every stage." The claim that the Jewish Home agreed to a prisoner release in exchange for continued construction in Judea and Samaria has been strenuously denied by the party. The Palestinian Authority has similarly denied that any such deal ever took place, and insists that Israel must freeze all construction in Judea-Samaria if talks are to continue beyond the end of April. It is worth noting, however, that a "settlement freeze" was never stipulated as a precondition to the current talks.Diskin stressed that he is "firmly against releasing terrorists under pressure or under extortion of any kind of terror attack for the purpose of bargaining, even at the cost of failing to free a kidnapped soldier or citizen" and noted that he is "saying this as a father to three children who are serving simultaneously in IDF combat units." "I believe that even if this decision is completely legal as far as the government is concerned, such a release under pressure impairs the State of Israel's deterrence ability, conveys weakness, encourages additional acts of terror for the purpose of bargaining, re-strengthens the terror infrastructures and seriously hurts the feelings of the terror victims' families and broad parts of the Israeli public," he continued.
"On the other hand, I do believe that in special cases a government can make a decision to release terrorists – at its own initiative – in order to advance a peace process, but not under extortion or pressure from a terror organization or a different country." "In light of its high public sensitivity, such a move should be postponed as much as possible to the latest stages of the negotiations when there have already been significant achievements or progress and when it can be explained to the public and to the families of terror victims." Turning to calls for the government to "balance-out" any release of Arab terrorists by releasing the handful of Jewish terrorists currently in Israeli jails, Diskin said the two cases cannot be compared."I also find serious fault in the idea to bind the release of Palestinian terrorists with the release of Jewish terrorists. I see no justification for terror attacks committed by Jewish citizens of the State of Israel, a country which has a strong army, a security agency, a secret service and a police," he declared. "When the state's citizens take the law into their hands and use terror against innocent people, they are committing a serious and dangerous act like no other, and should be treated with extra severity." "A merciful attitude towards such cases, as we have already seen in the State of Israel in the 'Jewish Underground' case, is wrong, and could encourage a repeat of this outline and undermines our moral justification for seriously punishing those involved in terror on the Palestinian side," he continued. "And so, political deals which bind the release of Jewish terrorists in order to 'sweeten the bitter pill' of releasing Palestinian terrorists are fundamentally wrong in my opinion." Diskin concluded the article by saying that a freeze would continue talks with the PA while also breaking "a situation of an ongoing act of terror for the purpose of bargaining, without any real return in the form of peace," in his words. To him, the move would save both sides from admitting that "talks are a failure" and the Israeli public from confusion over the releases, which he notes "have lacked any diplomatic benefit so far."
Kerry Makes Sudden Unannounced Israel Visit in Bid to Save Talks-In an attempt to salvage failing peace talks, Kerry makes another visit to Israel to meet with Netanyahu, Abbas.-By Ari Yashar-First Publish: 3/31/2014, 2:32 PM-ISRAELNATIONALNEWS
US Secretary of State John Kerry will be making another visit to Israel on Monday, in yet another attempt to save the failing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).The sudden visit was revealed to AFP by State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki. Kerry was reportedly considering the visit while in Paris on Sunday, and later Sunday night called Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in what apparently was an effort to coordinate the last-minute visit."Our negotiating team has been working with both parties on the ground to help them agree on a path forward, and Secretary Kerry has kept in close touch with his counterparts by phone," Psaki noted. "After consulting with his team, Secretary Kerry decided it would be productive to return to the region."Psaki reported that Kerry will be in Israel on Monday and Tuesday, and aside from meeting Netanyahu in Jerusalem will likely meet PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Kerry interrupted a trip to Rome to meet with Abbas just last Wednesday, amid the failing talks."Over the course of the last eight months, the Israelis and Palestinians have both made tough choices, and as we work with them to determine the next steps, it is important they remember that only peace will bring the Israeli and Palestinian people both the security and economic prosperity they all.deserve," Psaki added.While in Paris on Sunday, Kerry told reporters that it was not yet appropriate for the US to make any public judgement about the peace talks "at this important moment.""It's really a question between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and what prime minister Netanyahu is prepared to do," Kerry stated. "We'll see where we are tomorrow when some judgments have to be made."The fourth and final batch of terrorist releases was refused by Israel on Saturday. Netanyahu reportedly told Kerry that if the release went through it risked toppling his government, given the widespread protest of the unpopular "gesture" to promote the peace talks.The PA has threatened that it will go to the UN this week in unilateral moves for international recognition, in violation of the peace talk conditions, if the terrorists were not released. It has yet to follow through on that threat.Abbas has brought the talks to a loggerhead by adamantly refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish state. Kerry's visit apparently aims to deal with the massive difficulties faced on all fronts by the peace talks he initiated.
Israel hands Palestinians proposal to extend peace talks-US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with Netanyahu from Paris in bid to salvage peace talks on the verge of collapse.-By AFP March 31, 2014, 6:08 am 13-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel on Sunday handed the Palestinians a proposal they hope will lead to an extension of their peace talks beyond an April 29 deadline, as efforts to salvage the negotiations came to a head.The fate of the US-brokered peace process could be decided within days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier, warning that “either the matter will be resolved or it will blow up.”Netanyahu’s remarks to ministers from his rightwing Likud party came as US officials were working around the clock to prevent a collapse of the negotiations over a dispute about Palestinian prisoners.“In any case, there won’t be any deal without Israel knowing clearly what it will get in exchange,” Netanyahu said.According to a Palestinian official, Israel presented Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with a draft agreement to relaunch talks. Abbas was to examine the proposal during the night, he said.An Israeli official would not provide details on the proposal but told AFP: “Now the Palestinians need to reply if they are willing to continue negotiations.”With the talks teetering on the brink of collapse, Washington, which pushed the sides to relaunch talks in July, has been fighting an uphill battle to coax them into accepting a framework proposal which would extend the negotiations beyond April 29.But the issue has become tied up with the fate of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners who Israel was to have freed this weekend under the terms agreed to relaunch talks.Israel on Friday informed the Palestinians they would not free the prisoners, with the US State Department confirming it was working “intensively” to resolve the dispute.US officials said Secretary of State John Kerry, in Paris Sunday, spoke with Netanyahu.After those talks, Kerry told reporters in the French capital that it was not yet appropriate for the US to make any public judgement of the situation “at this important moment.”“It’s really a question between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and what prime minister Netanyahu is prepared to do,” he added.“We’ll see where we are tomorrow when some judgments have to be made.”Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said “this is a critical week for the Israeli-Palestinian issue” noting Kerry’s “efforts” and the “commitment and contribution of President (Barack) Obama towards this endeavor.”Ya’alon, who made the remarks during a meeting with chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff General Martin Dempsey, had recently criticized Washington’s foreign policy and reportedly called Kerry’s peacemaking efforts “obsessive” and “messianic.”The Palestinians say they will not even consider extending the talks without the prisoners being freed, but Israel has refused to release them without a Palestinian commitment to continue the talks, prompting a fresh crisis of confidence.“We agreed to the fourth batch,” Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told reporters on Sunday, while stressing it would not happen as long as Abbas was preparing to “blow up the negotiations” the very next day.President Shimon Peres, from a visit to Austria, said the sides were “working around the clock in an effort to reach a breakthrough in the talks.”“I hope that in the coming days there will be positive developments in the negotiations,” he said.
‘Ball in Israel court’
“The ball is now in Israel’s court,” Palestinian prisoners minister Issa Qaraqaa told Voice of Palestine radio, saying the leadership was expecting an answer from the Israeli government within 24 hours.Aside from the release of the 26 veteran detainees, Abbas reportedly wants an Israeli commitment to free more prisoners as one of his conditions for agreeing to extend the talks.An Israeli official told AFP on Saturday that Israel was willing to free the prisoners but the Palestinians were “creating difficulties.”Under the deal that relaunched peace talks, Israel agreed to release 104 prisoners held since before the 1993 Oslo peace accords in exchange for the Palestinians freezing all efforts to seek further international recognition.So far, Israel has freed 78 of them in three batches, and the last group — which the Palestinians insist includes 14 Arab Israelis jailed for terrorist attacks — was to have been released on March 29.
Abbas demanded release of Palestinian leaders’-PA president told Obama that negotiations will not continue without mass prisoner release, settlement moratorium, official says-By Elhanan Miller March 31, 2014, 3:23 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas presented to US President Barack Obama two conditions for extending the deadline for negotiations with Israel: a complete settlement freeze, and the release of some 600 prisoners based on a set of Palestinian-determined criteria, a Palestinian official told The Times of Israel on Monday.Kadoura Fares, a former Palestinian minister and current head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a nongovernmental organization dealing with prisoners’ rights, said that during his meeting with Obama in the US on March 17, Abbas demanded the release of three Palestinian leaders sentenced to long prison terms by Israel during the Second Intifada for their involvement in terror activities, in addition to a complete moratorium on settlement construction.The three leaders are Fatah official Marwan Barghouti, convicted of five counts of murder in 2004; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Secretary General Ahmad Saadat, sentenced by a military court in 2008 for his involvement in the assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi; and Fouad Shoubaki, a close associate of Yasser Arafat, sentenced in 2009 to 20 years in prison for his involvement in organizing the smuggling of arms into the Palestinian territories in 2002 aboard the ship Karine A.In addition, Abbas demanded the release of severely ill prisoners, estimated by Fares to number 100-120; 19 women; children under the age of 18; and prisoners held by Israel in administrative detention. Fares estimated the total number of prisoners falling into those categories at 600.He expected that the only group of prisoners to upset Israeli public opinion would be the three leaders.“If Israel wants to place hurdles, it will focus on Ahmad Saadat and Marwan Barghouti. It will whine that they are so dangerous, which is of course not true,” Fares said.“As for the others: The sick prisoners will be transferred directly from prison to hospitals — we’re talking about chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, paralysis or severe psychiatric issues; the women — none of them did anything that can cause a problem in Israeli public opinion, only trivial things; the children [were arrested] for stone throwing; and the administrative detainees were never indicted, and include 11 elected members of the Legislative Council,” he said.The Palestinian leadership will “under no circumstances” agree to forgo the release of 14 Israeli Arabs expected to be included in the final phase of prisoner release this week, Fares added.“The Israeli prisoners are an integral part [of the deal], and it’s a matter of life and death. No one has the legitimacy to give them up,” he said.The Times of Israel reported on Saturday that Israel offered to release 400 prisoners in exchange for a Palestinian agreement to extend negotiations until the end of the year.Responding to the report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the prisoner issue will be resolved “within days,” but insisted that Israel would free no more prisoners unless it knows exactly what it will get in return.The release of Israeli Arab prisoners would require a special Israeli government vote, which has so far not been scheduled.“We must stop the old and miserable Israeli habit of treating the [Palestinian] prisoners as numbers, as a herd,” Fares said on Monday. “We should not cite numbers at all, but focus on criteria. The Palestinian leadership should be party to setting the criteria; it’s not an exclusive matter for Israel to deal with, or a domestic Israeli issue.”On Monday evening, Abbas is scheduled to meet with the PLO’s Executive Committee, an 18-member body comprising the movement’s senior leadership. Fares said Abbas would update the leadership on the situation and reach operative decisions.“If we remain stuck, I don’t think Abu Mazen (Abbas) and the leadership will agree for things to remain stuck for long. We must proceed to real negotiations, not for negotiations to serve as cover while Israel continues building settlements.”
PA: Talks can go on if Israel frees 1,000 prisoners-Abbas also demands settlement freeze and transfer of some Area C regions to the Palestinian control-By Avi Issacharoff March 30, 2014, 4:09 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Palestinian leadership presented an offer to American mediators – that Israel release 1,000 more prisoners, of the Palestinian Authority’s choosing and in exchange, peace talks would be extended until the end of 2014. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also demanded that Israel freeze settlement construction and transfer some Area C regions to the Palestinian Authority’s control.The Palestinian Authority was holding intensive talks Sunday to discuss the matter further.On Saturday, The Times of Israel learned from a Palestinian source that Jerusalem, backed by Washington, offered to release 400 more prisoners of Israel’s choosing, in addition to a fourth and final group of longtime terrorism convicts who were set to go free this weekend – on the condition that the Palestinian Authority agrees to prolong the ongoing negotiations beyond the April 29 deadline.Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who has resigned several times since peace talks started up again in July under US mediation, said Sunday that he was still holding talks with Jerusalem and Washington, far from the public eye.On the prisoner release that was meant to take place Saturday, Erekat said it might still be carried out, as Israel was obligated to release inmates imprisoned before the Oslo Accords.Erekat stressed that Abbas was making every effort to secure the prisoners’ release independent of any agreement to extend the talks. In return, the Palestinians would continue to abide by their obligation to refrain from applying to UN and other international bodies for the duration of the talks.On Saturday, some sources claimed Israel was holding off on freeing the prisoners because of rumors that the PA would back out of peace talks once the fourth group of convicts was released. Israel has also balked at releasing Israeli Arabs.As of Saturday evening, however, Abbas was insisting that the prisoners be released before he would consider extending the talks beyond their current deadline.Saturday’s offer had stipulated that Israel would determine which additional 400 security prisoners would go free, Palestinian sources said.Israel is said to be holding close to 5,000 Palestinian security prisoners.Jewish Home’s Uri Ariel, the minister of housing and construction, was said to be ready to recommend that his right-wing party leave the coalition if the release of the extra prisoners goes through. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, a member of Netanyahu’s own Likud party, told Israel Radio Saturday night that he was against the release of all further prisoners, and that moves to free them should be stopped immediately, particularly “since there hasn’t been any forward movement in the peace process.”The Minister of Prisoners in the PA, Issa Karake, on Saturday night urged Abbas to leave the negotiations and instead take the cause of Palestinian statehood to the UN and other international organizations if Israel does not release the fourth group of prisoners within the next few days.State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday night, “In regard to reports this evening on an agreement on the release of prisoners, no deal has been arrived at, and we continue to work intensively with both sides. Any claims to the contrary are inaccurate.”Meanwhile, US Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations Martin Indyk met with Erekat and Israel’s envoy to the peace talks, Yitzhak Molcho, in Jerusalem Saturday night. Erekat was quoted by Army Radio saying he believed the deadlock would be broken and the fourth group of prisoners would go free early in the coming week.Earlier Saturday, it was reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told US Secretary of State John Kerry that he feared his coalition could fall apart if Israel frees the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners who were slated for release this weekend — among them 14 Israeli Arabs.Citing sources in the Palestinian Authority, the London-based pan-Arab al-Hayat newspaper reported that US negotiators had told Abbas Netanyahu feared his coalition, which includes the right-wing Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu parties, might disintegrate over the prisoner release.
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