Last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out to reaffirm his desire to continue direct negotiations saying, “I call on [Palestinian Authority] President Abbas to continue the good and sincere talks that we have just started, in order to reach an historic peace agreement between our two peoples.”

During the day, and in recent days, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been in close contact with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and other senior US administration officials, as well as with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian king Abdullah, and has updated them on the efforts to ensure both the continuation of the talks and their success.

Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear, in his talks, that Israel is ready to hold continuous contacts in the coming days in order to find a way to continue the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Prime Minister Netanyahu added: “I hope that President Abbas will stay in the talks and, with me, continue on the road towards peace, which we started only three weeks ago after many in the world realized that my intentions to achieve peace are serious and genuine, and that I honor my commitments.  During my Government’s term in office, Israel has gone a significant way towards helping the Palestinians by easing restrictions, which has advanced their quality of life, both in Judea and Samaria, and in the Gaza Strip.  I say to President Abbas: For the future of both our peoples, let us focus on what is really important.  Let us proceed in accelerated, sincere and continuous talks in order to bring about an historic peace framework agreement within one year.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his great appreciation for US President Barack Obama’s, Secretary of State Clinton’s, and  Senator George Mitchell’s major efforts towards resuming the peace talks and ensuring their continuation.

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On September 21st, Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu addressed the press in Sderot on where the peace process is heading, and what needs to be done.

Prime Minister Netanyahu: “My goal is not to conduct a process but to complete it.  My goal is to reach an historic peace agreement between us and our Palestinian Authority neighbors.  Now, I think that I expressed this in my 14.6.09 Bar-Ilan University speech one of the two most important principles for completing such a peace, and that is my willingness – and that of Israel – to recognize a Palestinian national state.  We say that the Palestinian people have a right to a national state of its own.  And we also say that the Palestinians must recognize the right of the Jewish people to a national state of its own.  They need to recognize the Jewish state.  The fact that they do not recognize it, that they are trying to avoid such a simple statement, raises doubts.  It raises questions on the Israeli side.  Why do you not agree?  Why?  Why are you using all kinds of excuses?  You say: we do not call Israel by name.  I spoke about the name of the Palestinian state?  I did not; I spoke about its essence.  I called it the national state of the Palestinian people.  And when the Palestinians refuse say something so simple, the question is – why?  You want to flood the State of Israel about refugees so that it will no longer have a Jewish majority?  You want to tear off parts of the Galilee and the Negev into mini-states?  And the citizens of Israel who are not Jewish?  In a peace agreement, there will be simplest symmetry: Israel recognizes the Palestinian state – and the Palestinians recognize the Jewish state.  This is so simple.  It is so just, so correct and so urgent.  I say to Abu Mazen: Recognize the Jewish state.” continue reading…

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As we told you last week, there is a lot of optimism coming out of the latest report to the Ad Hod Liaison Committee (AHLC). While the peace talks are (rightly) dominating the headlines and the public’s attention, economic progress is one of the most important backdrops for the discussion. According to the International Monetary Fund, real GDP growth in the first half of 2010 was 9 percent in the West Bank and 16 percent in Gaza. All of this data, along with Israel’s own observations, were compiled into this report which was delivered to the AHLC by Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon. Here is what the Deputy FM had to say to the AHLC: continue reading…

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With most of the world still struggling to climb out of an economic recession, one of the last places on earth most would guess is enjoying near double-digit growth is in the Palestinian Territories. According to the International Monetary Fund, real GDP growth in the first half of 2010 was 9 percent in the West Bank and 16 percent in Gaza. Unemployment dropped by three percent in the first quarter of 2010, as a result of Palestinian construction projects increasing by 20 percent since 2009.

Photo: Bjørn Svenungsen, UD

With checkpoints being removed by Israel, barriers to movement are being removed not just for trucks and movement of goods but everyday people. Israel’s Crossings Management Agency noted a 57 percent increase in pedestrians entering Israel in 2009 from 2008 (2010 numbers are not in yet but projected to continue to grow). In Gaza, following the Government of Israel’s June 20th cabinet decision to ease the restriction on the passage of goods into Gaza, the number of trucks getting in per week went from 385 in the end of May to over 1,100 weekly in the first week of July.

All of this is in Israel’s report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which monitors how resources from donor countries are improving the situation between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors. The AHLC, which is based and chaired Norway (think Oslo), will be meeting on September 21st in New York with its 16 other member states.

The entire report by Israel is online, right here.

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Imagine that you’re a parent who sends her children off to school in the morning worrying whether their bus will become a target of suicide bombers. Imagine that, instead of going off to college, your children become soldiers at age 18, serve for three years and remain in the active reserves into their 40s. Imagine that you have fought in several wars, as have your parents and even your grandparents, that you’ve seen rockets raining down on your neighborhood and have lost close family and friends to terrorist attacks. Picture all of that and you’ll begin to understand what it is to be an Israeli. And you’ll know why all Israelis desperately want peace.

Recent media reports, in Time magazine and elsewhere, have alleged that Israelis — who are currently experiencing economic growth and a relative lull in terrorism — may not care about peace. According to a poll cited, Israelis are more concerned about education, crime and poverty — issues that resonate with Americans — than about the peace process with the Palestinians. But such findings do not in any way indicate an indifference to peace, but rather the determination of Israelis to build normal, fruitful lives in the face of incredible adversity.

Yes, many Israelis are skeptical about peace, and who wouldn’t be? We withdrew our troops from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in order to generate peace, and instead received thousands of missiles crashing into our homes. We negotiated with the Palestinians for 17 years and twice offered them an independent state, only to have those offers rejected. Over the last decade, we saw more than 1,000 Israelis — proportionally the equivalent of about 43,000 Americans — killed by suicide bombers, and tens of thousands maimed. We watched bereaved mothers on Israeli television urging our leaders to persist in their peace efforts, while Palestinian mothers praised their martyred children and wished to sacrifice others for jihad.

Given our experience of disappointment and trauma, it’s astonishing that Israelis still support the peace process at all. Yet we do, and by an overwhelming majority. According to the prestigious Peace Index conducted by the Tamal Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University and released in July, more than 70% of Israelis back negotiations with the Palestinians, and nearly that number endorse the two-state solution. These percentages exist even though multiple Palestinian polls show much less enthusiasm for living side by side in peace with Israel, or that most Israelis believe that international criticism of the Jewish state will continue even if peace is achieved.

Indeed, Israelis have always grasped at opportunities for peace. When Arab leaders such as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat or King Hussein of Jordan offered genuine peace to Israel, our people passionately responded and even made painful concessions. That most Israelis are still willing to take incalculable risks for peace — the proposed Palestinian state would border their biggest cities — and are still willing to share their ancestral homeland with a people that has repeatedly tried to destroy them is nothing short of miraculous.

It’s true that Israel is a success story. The country has six world-class universities, more scientific papers and Nobel Prizes per capita than any other nation and the most advanced high-tech sector outside of Silicon Valley. The economy is flourishing, tourism is at an all-time high and our citizen army selflessly protects our borders. In the face of unrelenting pressures, we have preserved a democratic system in which both Jews and Arabs can serve in our parliament and sit on our Supreme Court. We have accomplished this without knowing a nanosecond of peace.

We shouldn’t have to apologize for our achievements. Nor should outside observers conclude that the great improvements in our society in any way lessen our deep desire for peace. That yearning was expressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the recent White House ceremony for the start of direct negotiations with the Palestinians. Addressing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as “my partner in peace,” Netanyahu called for “a peace that will last for generations — our generation, our children’s generation and the next.”

For Israelis who don’t have to imagine what it’s like to live in a perpetual war zone, that vision of peace is our lifeline.

Michael B. Oren is Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

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Amid cautious hope and searing skepticism, Israelis and Palestinians launched direct talks last week to forge the true and lasting peace that has eluded our peoples for too long.

Israel looks forward to narrowing the differences on all “final status” issues that must be resolved for any peace agreement. Some of these core issues are well known: Israel’s security needs or the vexing question of Israel’s settlement communities in the West Bank, for instance. Still, as negotiations advance, we should remember that peace will require compromises and concessions — not only from the Israeli side, but from the Palestinians as well.

Jonathan Peled, Israel's Spokesman in Washington, DC

Of critical importance, yet often overshadowed, is the need for mutual recognition and a normalization of relations between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel is surrounded by 22 Arab countries with a total population of over 300 million. So far, only two of these nations have recognized and negotiated a peace agreement with Israel. As we move forward, Israelis cannot be expected to make painful sacrifices unless the Palestinians are willing to offer something beyond a temporary cessation of hostilities — something more than the unwilling, forced acceptance of Israel that all-too-often masquerades as “peace”. To secure a genuine peace, Palestinians must publicly acknowledge Israel as a permanent fixture in the region.

Vital, therefore, is the acceptance of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people. Prime Minister Netanyahu has embraced the vision of two states for two peoples: speaking in Washington this week, he recognized the need for a Palestinian state that will serve as the homeland for the Palestinian people. In return, the Palestinians must recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. continue reading…

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On Tuesday evening on Highway 60, near Hebron, four Israeli civilians, one of whom was pregnant, were gunned down in their car in a hail of gunfire. “The vehicle was sprayed with dozens of bullets,” a paramedic at the scene told Israel’s Channel Two. “There were numerous shell casings around. We found four bodies and there was no chance whatsoever to help them; all we could do was to pronounce [their] death.”

The victims included two men, ages 25 and 40, along with two women of similar age. continue reading…

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Next week, we are presented with an opportunity to make history.

At the invitation of President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will come to Washington to sit face-to-face and discuss peace. I am here to tell you that, as stated at the formulation of this Israeli government, Israel is committed to seeing these talks through to reach a final agreement and a permanent end to the conflict.

In short, we are not quitters.

The road to peace has been long and will continue to be strenuous, but we will not relent. There are forces around the region that have, and will continue to try, to derail us from this pursuit. Still, Israel remains steadfast in our desire to secure a lasting peace with Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, alongside a thriving Palestinian state.

Israel is ready to sit down with the Palestinian leadership and come to resolution on the issues of concern to both peoples. After sixty years, Israelis hope the Palestinians will no longer treat us as wary neighbors but rather as regional allies and friends.

It is my sincere hope that at this historic turning point, Palestinians will join with Israel in a quest for peace.

Israel is dedicated to seeing this long elusive peace realized. We will not quit.

Michael Oren is Israel’s Ambassador to the United States

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Gilad Shalit turns 24 tomorrow. It has been over four years since Gilad was kidnapped from Israel by Hamas. None of his family or even the International Red Cross has been permitted to see him since. Not for his birthday, nor even to provide for his most basic humanitarian needs as international law demands.

When Gilad was 11, he wrote a story called “When the Shark and the Fish first met.” The words of a small boy, a maritime allegory, have come to represent the entire conflict. In the video below, posted originally two years ago, a group of 11-year-olds from the Bronx read this story whose author was just like them when he wrote it, except that he hailed from Israel instead of New York.

While the terrorists who hold Gilad captive have taken away his freedom, they have not silenced his voice.

Unfortunately, the international community still has not spoken forcefully enough to secure Gilad’s release. While the world looks on, nothing has changed — four years since he was kidnapped, Gilad is still a hostage, Hamas still refuses to allow the Red Cross to visit him, and there is still no end in sight.

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Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomes the invitation of the United States to begin direct negotiations without preconditions. The Prime Minister has been calling for direct negotiations for the past year and a half.

While Israel called for a moratorium on construction in the West Bank last winter as a sign of good faith in order to restart negotiations, it has taken months of shuttle diplomacy by US envoy George Mitchell to convince Palestinian leadership to return to negotiations.

Said Netanyahu, “Reaching an agreement is a difficult challenge but is possible. We are coming to the talks with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two peoples that will protect Israel’s national security interests, foremost of which is security.”

Please stay tuned for further updates.

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