Israel set a peace deadline for the Palestinians yesterday to become negotiating partners by the end of the year or else the government will move ahead with a plan to fix the borders on its own terms.
| Another deadline to come and go. |
Also, Israel accepted a decision by major Middle East peace brokers to resume some aid payments to the Palestinians — a move that could ease intense economic pressure on the Hamas-led government. The Quartet of international mediators — the United States, Russia, European Union and the United Nations — agreed on Tuesday to create the new mechanism for funnelling funds to the Palestinians and will run it for a three-month trial period. The Hamas-led government said it appreciated the Quartet’s efforts to ease the burden on the Palestinian people but said they could have gone further, and in a statement criticized the fact that its own authority was likely to be bypassed. “We were hoping that their decision could be more positive in dealing with the Palestinian government since it is an elected government that represents the Palestinian people.”
The move follows fears expressed by some Quartet members that more pressure on the Hamas-led administration could cause the Palestinian government to collapse, unleashing a deeper humanitarian and security crisis in the West Bank and Gaza. |