US ENVOY George Mitchell left Jerusalem yesterday without achieving a breakthrough in talks about talks between Palestinians and Israelis.
Although Mr Mitchell was unable to secure commitments on a resumption of negotiations from Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, both agreed to send delegations this week to Washington to continue discussions.
The sides remain as far apart as ever. Under fire from senior members of his own Fatah movement, the Palestinian Authority (PA) government and the public for adopting compromising positions on two key issues, Mr Abbas has been forced to retreat to his original stands.
Many Palestinians were outraged when he shook hands with Mr Netanyahu at an encounter arranged by US president Barack Obama on the sidelines of opening of the UN General Assembly.
Mr Abbas had said that he would not meet or negotiate with Mr Netanyahu until he agreed to freeze all Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Under US political and financial pressure, Mr Abbas capitulated to what a Palestinian observer called a “$200 million handshake”, referring to the amount the US pledged for PA budgetary support by the end of the year.
Outrage became fury when the PA agreed to postpone endorsement by the UN Human Rights Council of a report on crimes committed during Israel’s war on Gaza earlier this year.
Palestinian economy minister Bassem Khoury resigned in protest, other PA figures called the decision a mistake, and Palestinians staged a rally in Ramallah.
Mr Abbas is now not only insisting on a halt to Israeli settlement expansion, but also on Israeli implementation of commitments under the 2003 road map, including the removal of Israel’s 592 checkpoints and barricades in the West Bank and the reopening of Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem.
He has also repeatedly said negotiations should begin at the point where talks were suspended after Israel launched its offensive against Gaza last December.
In an attempt to limit damage over the Goldstone report, Mr Abbas instructed the PA delegation in Geneva and the Palestinian observer at UN to press for an early discussion in either the Human Rights Council or the Security Council of the 575-page document, which provides evidence of Israeli and, to a lesser extent, Hamas war crimes.
Fearing involvement of the International Criminal Court, Israel has threatened to pull out of US-brokered talks if the Goldstone report is endorsed and its recommendations are adopted.
Many Palestinians have demanded that Mr Abbas resign and dissolve the PA, due to the authority’s inability to secure US and Israeli commitments on these and other issues.
PA weakness was exposed on Saturday when, thanks to Jordanian rather than PA mediation, several hundred Palestinians walked free from the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound in Jerusalem, a location regarded by Jews as the site of the first and second temples.
The Palestinians had staged a week-long sit-down there to protest against incursions by Israeli militants who seeking to replace the mosques with a third temple.
