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Researcher: P.A. Planned Mideast Talks Crisis

CBN

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- An Israeli researcher released a report Thursday detailing how the Palestinians preplanned the current crisis in peace talks.

The report by Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan Halevi, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, reveals strategies by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and chief negotiator Saeb Erekat to sabotage the U.S.-brokered talks.

"The P.A.'s latest moves reflect the long-term strategy [P.A. leader Mahmoud] Abbas has been implementing, which involves using diplomatic means to obtain international recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state along the 1967 lines without the Palestinians having to make concessions on the fundamental issues of the conflict, particularly the refugee issue and what is called the 'right of return,'" Halevi writes.

Following a four-hour meeting Thursday in Jerusalem, attended by Obama envoy Martin Indyk, Erekat said talk of progress toward extending the April 29 deadline was "unfounded."

Israel also denied reports the two sides were any closer to reaching an agreement.

Earlier Thursday, Abbas told reporters in Cairo he was willing to extend talks, but a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization denied that decision, saying P.A. leaders had not yet met to discuss the matter.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Jan Psaki told reporters "the gaps were narrowing, but any speculation about an agreement is premature at this time."

Meanwhile, a decision by Israel to deduct a portion of its monthly transfer of P.A. tax revenues to apply to the Palestinians' massive debt to the Israel electric company, estimated at $400 million, as well as to hospitals and other Israeli institutions, has the Palestinians crying foul, with Erekat calling it everything from "theft" to a "violation of international law and norms," the Times of Israel reported.

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