International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, 5 Mar 2010

Although "proximity talks" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are likely to begin next week with the arrival of US Vice-President Joe Biden, the negotiations will not begin at the same point they left off when then-prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas terminated discussions in late 2008, The Jerusalem Post reported on Friday.

This development marks a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly rejected PA demands that the talks begin from the same point where they ended with Olmert.

Olmert was ready to give the PA a state on nearly 94 percent of the West Bank with land swaps to compensate for most of the rest, a shared arrangement in Jerusalem, and the return of a small number of refugees into Israel as a "humanitarian gesture." Abbas rejected the offer, telling The Washington Post in May that the gaps were "too wide."

In another win for Netanyahu, the proximity talks will not immediately focus on borders, as also demanded by the Palestinians. Israel insists there can be no credible discussion of borders without first knowing what security arrangements will be in place.

According to Ha’aretz, the Palestinians were satisfied to re-enter talks after receiving written assurances from the Obama administration that the main American concern is establishing a Palestinian state and that if the talks fail, the US will assign blame and take appropriate action. The document sent to the PA reads: "We expect both parties to act seriously and in good faith. If one side, in our judgment, is not living up to our expectations, we will make our concerns clear and we will act accordingly to overcome that obstacle."

The talks will reportedly involve US special Mideast envoy George Mitchell shuttling between Netanyahu’s representative Yitzhak Molcho in Jerusalem and the PA’s chief negotiator Sa’eb Erekat in Ramallah.

"In the end, our goal is to try and reach a peace agreement with our Palestinian neighbors via direct talks, but we have always said that we do not necessarily insist on this format," Netanyahu told his cabinet on Thursday. "I think that there is international recognition that this government wants to start a peace process, and I tell you that we also want to complete it."

Hamas has already condemned the PA for agreeing to the indirect talks with Israel, calling it a "waste of the Palestinian cause" and forecasting that the outcome of any talks would "not meet any standards of legitimacy."

In related news, UN humanitarian coordinator John Holmes told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the negotiations might be too late. "You are not far off from the point where the two-state solution becomes impossible," said Holmes. "If you are going to have a meaningful Palestinian state, it needs to have a meaningful piece of land that goes with it." He went on to criticize Israeli policies towards the Palestinians, including what he called Israel’s "illegal annexation of Jerusalem."

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