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WASHINGTON — President Obama promised a $400 million aid package for the West Bank and Gaza on Wednesday, as the United States scrambled to come up with a way out of the stalemate in the Middle East exacerbated by the Gaza flotilla incident last week.

Mr. Obama, meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House, said that the money would go to housing and schools. White House officials said that the money also would help increase access to drinking water and to help address health and infrastructure needs.

The exact details of how such aid would be used in Gaza remained unclear. Nor was it immediately clear how Mr. Abbas, who has authority in the West Bank but no authority in Gaza, would be able to administer it.

Gaza has been subjected to an Israeli blockade since 2007; an Israeli raid that thwarted a Turkish-led flotilla carrying aid supplies toward Gaza last week led to international protests over the blockade, which Mr. Obama has called “unsustainable.”

Israel contends the blockade is necessary to prevent arms smuggling to Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza and opposes Israel’s existence.

Administration officials and their European allies have been pressing the Israeli government to come up with some kind of agreement to partly lift the blockade.

“The president has described the situation in Gaza as unsustainable, and it demands a significant change in strategy,” the White House said in a statement.

“While we work with our partners in the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Egypt, and the international community to put such a strategy in place, these projects represent a down payment on the United States’ commitment to Palestinians in Gaza, who deserve a better life and expanded opportunities, and the chance to take part in building a viable, independent state of Palestine, together with those who live in the West Bank.”
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Obama, Meeting Abbas, Pledges New Aid for Palestinians

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday stepped up its condemnations of Israel and accused the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of working to “destroy” US efforts to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The PA claimed that Israel was increasing tensions in the region by increasing its “attacks” on Palestinians so that it could divert attention from the international community’s demand for a total freeze of settlement construction.
“Apparently, Netanyahu has accepted our demand that the issue of Jerusalem be discussed during the indirect talks that are supposed to take place in a few weeks,” said a senior PA official. “If true, this is a positive development because Netanyahu had so far refused to put the issue of Jerusalem on the table.”

Another top PA official said that the US administration has told the PA leadership that the Netanyahu government has agreed to release a significant number of Fatah prisoners from Israeli jails as a “confidence-building measure” and “goodwill gesture” to the Palestinians ahead of the talks.

The official said that the PA leadership was waiting to hear from US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who is scheduled to hold talks with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan on Monday, whether Netanyahu is “serious” about the reported gestures.

“In any case, we will return to the talks only after we receive assurances from the Americans that the construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank would be completely halted,” he added.

The PA, meanwhile, warned that Israel’s “escalation” was threatening to destroy US efforts to persuade the Palestinians to launch the indirect talks.
Referring to the killing of four Palestinian men by IDF soldiers in the Nablus area in the past 48 hours, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for Abbas, said that the Netanyahu government was “sending a message to the US and the Quartet, as well as the Arabs, in response to demands that it halt settlement construction.” He said that the latest escalation was “deplorable and unacceptable” because it would foil all efforts to resume the Middle East peace process.

“It’s obvious that the Israeli government does not want peace,” Abu Rudaineh said. “Nor does it want negotiations [with the Palestinians].”

He also condemned the killings and Israel’s plans to build 1,600 new homes in Jerusalem’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood as “provocative,” adding that without practical US pressure on Israel the peace talks would not be resumed.
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‘Israeli escalation aims to kill talks’
However, PA officials in Ramallah said they didn’t rule out the possibility that indirect talks with Israel would be resumed in the coming weeks. The officials said that in recent days the PA leadership has received “positive messages” from Washington regardingIsrael’s plans to build new homes in Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem.

“Apparently, Netanyahu has accepted our demand that the issue of Jerusalem be discussed during the indirect talks that are supposed to take place in a few weeks,” said a senior PA official. “If true, this is a positive development because Netanyahu had so far refused to put the issue of Jerusalem on the table.”

Several days into a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived Wednesday in Ramallah, where he expressed his support for Palestinian independence and for the creation of a Palestinian state.

“I dream of an independent and free Palestine living in peace in the Middle East,” Lula said during a visit to the West Bank. “I believe the Palestinians and Israelis are going to share the land of their forefathers.”

The Brazilian leader has said he would like to play a bigger role in Mideast diplomacy. He is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories this week.
Lula also visited the grave of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, where he laid a wreath, despite criticism from Israel. There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the visit to Arafat’s grave.

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Brazil President in West Bank: I dream of a free Palestine

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday blamed U.S. President Barack Obama for delaying the resumption of Middle East peace talks by not standing firm on his demand to see a complete freeze in West Bank settlements.

In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Abbas said that he would not rescind his own stance on the matter. He added that the Palestinians expected Obama to convince Israel to announce a complete freeze, accusing the American administration of having changed its stance on the matter.

He told the daily that the optimism he had felt following Obama’s election had waned, and he was no longer satisfied with the American president’s performance.
Abbas has made similar remarks over the last few months, both with regard to his disappointment with Obama as well as his demand for a settlement freeze as a condition for re-launching peace talks.

Obama’s special Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, has laid blame for the stalled talks on Abbas.

Mitchell believed the Palestinians were showing little enthusiasm for talks because inaction was safer than reentering dialogue when the outcome was so uncertain, the London-based A-Sharq-al-Awsat reported a few days ago.

Mitchell has urged Europe to step up pressure on Abbas in an attempt to kick-start stalled peace talks with Israel, said the paper.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed late last year to a 10-month temporary construction freeze, but the Palestinians have declared that to be insufficient.
Source. haaretz.com