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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/59076/full/59076/abbas-no-talks-if-israel-ends-freeze-on-new-settlements/ <br /><br /> <b>Abbas: No talks if Israel ends freeze on new settlements</b> <br /> Thursday, August 26, 2010 | by mohammed daraghmeh <br /><br /><p>The Palestinian leader has warned President Barack Obama that he will quit the peace talks that begin next week if Israel ends its freeze on new West Bank settlements.</p> <p> Head Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas laid out his position in a letter to Obama and also sent copies to the European Union, the U.N. and Russia — all members of the Quartet of Mideast mediators.</p> <p>“If Israel resumes settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, we cannot continue negotiations,” Erekat said, quoting from the letter.</p> <p>Israel’s 10-month slowdown, which bans construction of new Jewish homes in the West Bank, is supposed to end Sept. 26, and Israel’s government would like to continue limited construction, at the very least.</p> <p>The Palestinians seek an independent state in all of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem — territories Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, but some 300,000 Jews still live in settlements around the West Bank interspersed among 2.4 million Palestinians. Another 180,000 live in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as their own.</p> <p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes giving up Israeli control of East Jerusalem.</p> <p>Netanyahu has not commented on the issue of the freeze since the U.S. announced Aug. 20 that talks would be resuming. It will be the first face-to-face peace talks between the sides since late 2008.</p> <p>Extending the settlement slowdown would be deeply unpopular among the more hawkish members of Netanyahu’s coalition government.</p> <p>Some analysts suggest he might be forced to rearrange his coalition by excluding some hard-liners and bringing in moderates from the rival Kadima Party.</p>

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