Israel Making a Deal With the Devil

This is a crock. As if stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability is a favor to Israel rather than being a threat to the entire world. And as if sanctions at this point is actually going to stop Iran anyway. Again, another example of projecting weakness and helplessness on the part of the Israeli leadership. Israel shouldn’t need anyone else to deal with Iran, it needs to take matters into its own hands, not make deals with other countries in the foolish hope that the international community will take care of Iran for it in exchange for relinquishing its territories to muslim terrorists.

Report: Israel to freeze settlements in exchange for tougher Iran sanctions
By Haaretz Service and Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama is close to breaking the stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians by getting Israel to agree to a partial settlement freeze in exchange for a tougher U.S. stand against Iran’s nuclear program, the British Guardian reported.

The report, which cites U.S., European, Israeli and Palestinian officials, said that Obama will be ready to announce the resumption of long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of September.

“The message is: Iran is an existential threat to Israel; settlements are not,” the Guardian quoted one official close to the negotiations as saying.

In exchange for Israel agreeing to a partial and temporary settlement freeze, the U.S., Britain and France would push the United Nations Security Council to expand sanctions on Iran to include its oil and gas industry, the report said.

Israel is also seeking normalization with Arab states, which would include the right for El Al to fly within Arab states’ airspace, the establishment of trade offices and embassies and an end to the ban on travelers with Israeli stamps in their passports.

Details of the negotiations are expected to be outlined Wednesday during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting in London with George Mitchell, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East.

“It has been pretty hard going but we are getting there,” the Guardian quoted another official as saying. “We are closer to a deal with the Israelis than many think. The Arabs are more difficult to pin down.”

The report said Obama plans to announce the breakthrough either at the meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York in the week of September 23 or at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh on September 24-25.

Obama plans to make his announcement together with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and sources said he hopes a final peace deal can be negotiated within two years.

Israel and the United States on Tuesday said they are closing the gaps over the contentious issue of West Bank settlement construction, senior American officials told Haaretz.

The Obama administration has demanded that Israel halt all construction in settlements in the West Bank, which the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Netanyahu has resisted calls for a total freeze on construction, arguing that the Bush administration had acquiesced to continued Israeli settlement activity in large blocs that are likely to be annexed by Israel in any future agreement with the Palestinians.

He reiterated during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street in London, that Israel will not limit construction in East Jerusalem.

“What we’re seeking to achieve with the United States in the talks we’ve conducted, and will conduct tomorrow and will conduct after tomorrow, is to find a bridging formula that will enable us to at once launch a process but enable those residents to continue living normal lives,” Netanyahu said.