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U.S. stands by Israel, angers Palestinians

By Adam Gonn: 0 Comments Print E-mail Xinhua, February 21, 2011

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The American veto "is consistent with U.S. policy," according to Dr. Jonathan Rynhold of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. The U.S. has "always opposed to seeing settlements as the crux of the problem," Rynhold said.

Palestinian Fatah supporters take part in a rally to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to protest the U.S. veto, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Feb. 20, 2011. About 2000 Palestinians demonstrated Sunday against the U.S veto in the United Nations Security Council against a draft resolution condemning Jewish settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories. [Fadi Arouri/Xinhua]

Yehuda Ben-Meir of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv believes that the veto was a clear and important statement from Washington.

"The reason is that the Palestinians for the last few months have been playing with this idea that they cannot engage in serious negations, and that international community is going to solve the problem for them," Ben-Meir said.

"It's a message that the U.S. has been sending them for months, and the Quartet (made up of the U.S., the U.N., Russia, and the European Union) says the same thing, they called for a resumption of direct talks," Ben-Meir said.

"The whole world is calling for immediate resumption of direct talks, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to negotiate," he noted. Ben-Meir said that he hoped the American veto would will make the Palestinians realize that "they are not going to get an imposed solution in this area without trying to negotiate."

Following the end of Israel's 10-month freeze on settlement construction in September 2010, Abbas refused to return to negotiations with the settlement building still underway.

The demand for Israel to halt construction was issued by the U. S., but once the freeze ended Washington was unable to convince Israel to extend it, despite significant incentives.

According to Ben-Meir, the Palestinians have been trying to get outside parties to solve the conflict for them for the last 40 years.

"Each time it's somebody else, and they (the Palestinians) must realize that no one is going to impose a solution in the area," Ben-Meir said, concluding that "a solution must come as a result of negotiations in which both sides are willing to compromise."

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