European states offer Middle East peace plan without UK

[Englander]

Brian Whitaker and agencies
Friday November 17, 2006
The Guardian

In a sign of growing frustration at diplomatic inaction as Israeli-Palestinian violence escalates, Spain, France and Italy yesterday unveiled a five-point peace initiative, taking Britain by surprise.

Downing Street confirmed last night that it had not been consulted and had no prior knowledge of the plan, which envisages a leading role for Europe in ending the conflict. Foreign Office sources said they had first learned of it from a news item on the BBC.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's prime minister, announced the initiative at a summit with Jacques Chirac, the French president, in the Catalan city of Girona, near the French border. "We cannot remain impassive in the face of the horror that continues to unfold before our eyes," Mr Zapatero told a news conference after the meeting. "Violence has reached a level of deterioration that requires determined, urgent action by the international community." Italy also backs the initiative, he added.

One particular cause of frustration has been the American veto, last Saturday, of a security council resolution condemning Israel in the wake of an artillery attack in Gaza which killed 18 Palestinian civilians. France, a permanent member of the council, voted in favour, describing its text as "balanced", but Britain abstained.

The plan announced yesterday has five components: an immediate ceasefire; formation of a national unity government by the Palestinians that can gain international recognition; an exchange of prisoners, including the Israeli soldiers whose seizure sparked the war in Lebanon and fighting in Gaza this summer; talks between Israel's prime minister and the Palestinian president; and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a ceasefire.

More at;
Guardian

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Israel dismisses new peace plan

Israel has dismissed a Middle East peace plan put forward by Spain, France and Italy.

The plan calls for a ceasefire and increased international intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

An Israeli official said parts of the plan were being discussed, but it was not being taken seriously as it was not co-ordinated with the EU or Israel.

>snip

Israel has long opposed greater international intervention and does not favour an international peace conference.

"Israel believes that it is right to conduct direct negotiations with all sides of the conflict," Amira Oron, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, said.

A senior Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, welcomed the plan in principle.

More at;
BBC News

[bemildred]

1. Spanish FM: Nothing in peace plan 'Israel can reject'

Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos sought Friday to reassure Israel over a new Mideast peace initiative proposed the day before by Spain, France and Italy, saying that there was nothing in the plan "that Israel can reject."

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday that Israel rejected the new peace initiative out of hand. She told Moratinos that it was unacceptable for an initiative concerning Israel to be launched without coordination with Jerusalem.

Livni also told Moratinos that if the sponsors of the initiative were so inclined, they should seek to hold dialogue with Israel on any new plan.

But Moratinos told Haaretz on Friday he had spoken to his Israeli counterpart about the initiative, in what he described was a "good conversation," and had "tried to convince her that it's not an anti-Israeli plan."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789009.html

[breakaleg]

2. If Israel rejects this plan which calls for stopping the kassams among other

things, how can they still claim they want peace?

[Amused Musings]

4. It may be because

Palestinians have a hard time honoring cease fires. I remember in the days before Hamas won the elections, every time there was an attack, the main government would throw up is hand and say "not us!" Which was probably true, but it just revealed they did not have the slightest bit of sovereignty on their own lands.

[breakaleg]

5. Not disputing that but...

if they want peace, then they have to negotiate. There is no other way. Beating them into submission, which is their current plan, clearly isn't working.

[Amused Musings]

6. You may be right

Things are different than they were back then a lot of destruction has occurred. Besides, it was mostly Hamas not honoring it, right? Now that they are in the government progress, in theory, could be made. I am just not confortable with Hamas not renouncing its aims of genocide. And I dont think Israelis are either.

[bemildred]

3. Jordan press blasts Israel for rejecting European initiative

Amman - The Jordanian press on Saturday rebuked Israel for rejecting a new European initiative on the Middle East as indicative of the Jewish state's 'arrogance' and a strategy that rejects negotiation as a means of resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.

'Israel's hurry to open fire on the tripartite European initiative reflects a continuation of the pattern of arrogance and the choice of power which has been adopted by the successive Israeli governments,' the pro-government daily newspaper al-Rai wrote in an editorial.

Spain, France and Italy on Thursday announced a joint plan for resolving the Middle East conflict, which envisages a total ceasefire, the dispatch of international monitors to the area and the convening of a new international peace conference.

The European proposal, only in its preliminary stages, was welcomed by the Palestinian Authority but rejected by the Israeli government.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1223525.php/Jordan_press_blasts_Israel_for_rejecting_European_initiative