Reignite a negotiations process that can produce
Stressing the urgency of peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori last weekend wrote to President Barack Obama urging United States leadership to “reignite a negotiations process that can produce immediate and sustainable steps toward a just, comprehensive and lasting peace,” Episcopal News Service reports.
The Jan. 16 letter also cautioned against U.S. use of its veto power in the U.N. Security Council to block a possible resolution on Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories. Use of the veto “would send the wrong signal to both parties, as it would be interpreted by many as a break from past U.S. positions against settlement building,” the presiding bishop wrote.
Stalled peace talks The presiding bishop’s letter comes at a moment when U.S. efforts to broker direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are stalled. The parties briefly came to the table in September in direct negotiations orchestrated and mediated by Obama, but those talks faltered when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend a temporary freeze on the construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian negotiators have maintained that a full settlement freeze is a condition of their participation in peace talks.
For most of 2010, the Israeli government maintained a temporary freeze on settlement construction. Obama had sought this freeze in order to bring the parties to the table, but the Israeli government declined to extend the moratorium past September unless the Palestinian Authority would formally recognize Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people. Palestinian negotiators refused to do so.
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