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Mitchell: Settlements Will Help Determine Final Borders

(PBS) Charlie Rose - In an interview on Jan. 6 prior to his return to the region, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell said: "My hope [is] that we can make progress on three tracks....First, political negotiations, to get the parties into meaningful negotiations that will produce a peace agreement. Secondly, security, to make certain that any agreement ensures the security of the people of Israel and the Palestinian people and the surrounding states. And third, economic growth and what we call institutional efforts, to help the Palestinians improve their economy and...build from the ground up the institutions of governance." "Understand the different perspectives. Israel annexed Jerusalem in 1980....No other country, including the United States, recognizes that annexation. Neither do the Palestinians, nor the Arabs, of course. But for the Israelis, what they're building in is in part of Israel. Now, the others don't see it that way. So you have these widely divergent perspectives on the subject....The Israelis are not going to stop settlements in, or construction in East Jerusalem. They don't regard that as a settlement because they think it's part of Israel." Rose: "So you're going to let them go ahead even though no one recognizes the annexation?" Mitchell: "You say 'Let them go ahead.' It's what they regard as their country. They don't say they're letting us go ahead when we build in Manhattan." "The Israelis have a state, a very successful state. They want security, which they ought to have....The Palestinians don't have a state. They want one. And they ought to have one....The Palestinians are not going to get a state until the people of Israel have a reasonable sense of sustainable security. The Israelis, on the other hand, are not going to get that reasonable sense of sustainable security until there is a Palestinian state." Mitchell: "Both sides understand it's not going to be the '67 [lines]." Rose: "So settlements will have made a difference in terms of the way the final borders are determined." Mitchell: "Yes, they will. There is no doubt about that and I think that's a fairly universal understanding of that. That's just a reality that's going to have to be dealt with. You can ask wishfully that things might be as you would like them to be or you deal with them as they are, and I think we have to deal with them as they are." Rose: "When was the last time we used a stick?...You say to Israel, look, if you don't do this -" Mitchell: "Under American law, the United States can withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel. President George H.W. Bush did so on one occasion....That's one mechanism that's been publicly discussed. There are others, and you have to keep open whatever options. But our view is that we think the way to approach this is to try to persuade the parties what is in their self-interest."
2010-01-11 08:33:25
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