Direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority took place throughout 2010 as part of the peace process, between United States President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The ultimate aim of the direct negotiations is reaching an official "final status settlement" to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict by implementing a two-state solution, with Israel remaining a Jewish state, and the establishment of a state for the Palestinian people.
In early 2010, Benjamin Netanyahu, imposed a ten-month moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank as a gesture for the Palestinian Authority, after previously publicly declaring his support for a future Palestinian state, however he insisted that the Palestinians would need to make reciprocal gestures of their own. The Palestinian Authority rejected the gesture as insufficient. Nine month later, direct negotiations between Israel and the PA relaunched, after nearly two years of stalemate."Direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders to begin," Janine Zacharia, August 31, 2010, The Washington Post.
In early September, a coalition of 13 Palestinian factions began a campaign of attacks against Israeli civilians, including a series of drive-by shootings and rocket attacks on Israeli towns, in an attempt to derail and torpedo the ongoing negotiations."Islamist groups attempt to derail Middle East talks," Mark Weiss, September 4, 2010, Irish Times.
Direct talks broke down in late September 2010 when an Israeli partial moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank expired and Netanyahu refused to extend the freeze unless the Palestinian Authority recognized Israel as a Jewish State, while the Palestinian leadership refused to continue negotiating unless Israel extended the moratorium.PM Netanyahu's Speech at the Opening of the Knesset Winter Session , Embassy of Israel 12-10-2010 The proposal was rejected by the Palestinian leadership, that stressed that the topic on the Jewishness of the state has nothing to do with the building freeze. The decision of Netanyahu on the freeze was criticized by European countries and the United States.Palestinians quash PM's offer for renewed building freeze, Jerusalem Post 11-10-2010
Background
Direct negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government have continued for many decades and remain a complicated issue to resolve.
When President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, he has made peaceful settlement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict a top priority of his administration, appointing former Senator George Mitchell as his peace envoy.
In March 2009 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Israel. She said that Israeli settlements and demolition of Arab homes in East Jerusalem were "unhelpful" to the peace process. Clinton also voiced support for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu supports Palestinian self-government but did not explicitly endorse US and Palestinian visions for Palestinian statehood. Upon the arrival of President Obama administration's special envoy, George Mitchell, Netanyahu stated that any resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians will be conditional on the Palestinians recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. So far the Palestinian leadership has rejected a US-backed proposal extending a settlement freeze in exchange for recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, as this issue had not been sufficiently clarified by Israel at that time.
On June 4, 2009 Obama delivered a speech at the Cairo University in Egypt in which Obama addressed the Muslim world. The speech called for a "new beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United States. With respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the President stated that "the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states" and called upon both Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations. In addition, during the speech Obama added that "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements" as it "undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop."Remarks by the President On a New Beginning, The White House 4-6-2009
On June 14, in what was understood as a response Obama's Cairo speech, Netanyahu gave a speech at Bar-Ilan University in which he endorsed, for the first time, a "Demilitarized Palestinian State", after two months of refusing to commit to anything other than a self-ruling autonomy when coming into office. Netanyahu also stated that he would accept a Palestinian state if Jerusalem were to remain the united capital of Israel but open to all religions, the Palestinians would have no military, and the Palestinians would give up their demand for a right of return. He also claimed the right for a "natural growth" in the existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank while their permanent status is up to further negotiation. In general, the address was viewed as a significant turnaround from his previously hawkish positions against the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
On July 12, 2009, Mahmoud Abbas told Egyptian media that he would not cede any part of the West Bank to Israel, that he would demand territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and that he would never waive the Palestinian right of return. In a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, Abbas demanded that any peace deal be based strictly on the 1967 borders and the Arab Peace Initiative. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat rejected any "middle ground solutions", saying that the Palestinians would reject any deal between the U.S. and Israel that would allow any construction to continue in Israeli settlements.
On 23 August 2009, Netanyahu announced in his weekly cabinet meeting that negotiations with the Palestinians will begin in September 2009 and will be officially launched on his visit to New York, after he had accepted an invitation from President Barack Obama for a "Triple Summit" there. He added that there is progress with special envoy George Mitchell, though there is no full agreement on everything, and there will be more rounds of meetings until September. On the same day, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas said there would be no negotiations so long as Israel continued West Bank settlement construction.
On 20 September 2009, the White House announced that it will host a three-way meeting between President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas, within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly, "in an effort to lay the groundwork for renewed negotiations on Mideast peace." The meeting took place on 22 September, in New York. Afterwards, Netanyahu said that he agreed with Abbas during the meeting that peace talks should be relaunched as soon as possible.
2010–2011 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks On 25 November 2009, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, imposed a 10-month construction freeze on all of its settlements in the West Bank. Calling it "a painful step that will encourage the peace process" and urged the Palestinians to respond. Israel's decision was widely seen as due to pressure from the Obama administration, which urged the sides to seize the opportunity to resume talks. The Palestinian Authority rejected the gesture as being insignificant due to the limited construction on some pre-approved housing units, failure to extend the freeze to East Jerusalem, and failure to dismantle already-built settlement outposts illegal under Israeli law.PLO Negotiations Affairs Department, April 2010, "Israel's Violations of the Road Map, Jan 1 – March 31, 2010," http://www.nad-plo.org/news-updates/NSUSummaryIsraeliRMViolations_Jan-Mar2010_.pdf The Palestinians refused to enter negotiations, despite Israeli appeals to do so.
A partial freeze on construction in East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1980, and regards as its sovereign territory, was imposed under the observation of U.S. consular officials, though not acknowledged by the Israeli government.Briefing by Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell, U.S. State Department 25-11-2009 On 19 July, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu froze a major construction project in Pisgat Ze'ev as a "diplomatic gesture" to the United States. However, some construction continued, and the Obama administration voiced disappointment over the matter, stating that it viewed construction there as a violation of the settlement freeze. On 10 March 2010, Israel approved the construction of 1,600 apartments in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, sparking a diplomatic crisis between Israel and the United States.
A partial step towards full negotiations took place around the middle of March 2010, as Israeli and Palestinian teams began indirect negotiations through US intermediaries. These negotiations were interrupted within few days by the Palestinian Authority in protest of Israeli actions in East Jerusalem. They were renewed in May of that year. On 10 May 2010, Israel joined the OECD. Previously, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had written to the organization, urging it to suspend Israel's application, and before the vote, called numerous OECD heads of state to lobby against Israeli membership. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki also wrote to OECD members that accepting Israel would legitimize its "racist" and "dangerous" policies towards Palestinians.
On 31 May 2010, relations between Israel and the Palestinians were further strained when Israel carried out the Gaza flotilla raid. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated that "Israel has committed a massacre", and declared a three-day mourning period. Palestinian official Mustafa Barghouti said that the attack would lead to the international boycott growing in strength, and called Israel "the most despicable state in the world". Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also criticized the attack.
On 8 July 2010, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the Arab League that the Palestinian Authority would abandon peace talks and attack Israel if the Arab states would invade, saying "if you want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor. But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they don't have the ability to do it".
In August 2010 Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stated that a Palestinian state was possible to achieve within one year.
A renewed effort to negotiate peace was initiated by the Obama administration by getting the parties involved to agree to direct talks for the first time in a long while. U.S. President Barack Obama was successful in obtaining support for direct talks from Egypt and Jordan. The Egyptian and Jordanian governments managed to persuade the Palestinian leadership to accept Israel's settlement freeze and enter direct talks nine months after the start of the freeze. The aim of the talks was to forge the framework of a final agreement within one year on a two-state solution, although general expectations of a success were fairly low.