The New York Times
SHANNON, Ireland — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she believed that the Israelis and Palestinians could work out a deal on Jewish settlements, leaving open the possibility that their fledgling peace talks could go forward even without an extension of Israel’s moratorium on settlement construction.
Speaking to reporters during her flight to Sharm el Sheik, the Egyptian resort where talks will resume Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton also repeated President Obama’s call for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to extend the moratorium, scheduled to expire on Sept. 26. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has threatened to quit the negotiations if the temporary ban is not extended.
On Sunday Mr. Netanyahu offered a hint of flexibility, saying that while Israel would not extend the moratorium, it would not build the tens of thousands of housing units that are in the planning pipeline. Mrs. Clinton suggested that gestures by the Palestinians, especially on security issues, could give Mr. Netanyahu the leverage he needed to sell a compromise to his domestic audience. She declined to offer proposals, saying it was up to the two sides to come up with compromises.
Palestinian leaders reacted coolly on Monday to Mr. Netanyahu’s overture, making it clear that no understanding had been reached. Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian negotiator, said that a plethora of statements from Mr. Netanyahu and others were “confusing,” and that the Palestinians were waiting to see the Israeli prime minister in Sharm el Sheik.
Mr. Shaath said past compromises on settlement construction had ended up being “cover-ups for an unlimited amount of expansion that is very difficult to assess and track.”
Peace Now, an advocacy group that opposes Jewish settlement in areas beyond the 1967 boundaries, said in a new report that more than 2,000 housing units were awaiting immediate construction after the moratorium, and that plans for at least 11,000 more housing units had already received full government approval.
There are plans for 25,000 more housing units, but these would need further government approval, the report said.
Mr. Netanyahu faced growing pressure from the settlers’ leaders. The Yesha Council, the West Bank settlers’ umbrella organization, said in a statement on Monday that any continuation of the construction freeze, which began in November, would lead to “severe political instability within Israel and the ultimate collapse of the current government.”
Danny Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council, said, “The government made it clear on numerous occasions that the freeze was a one-time temporary gesture, and we will not stand by quietly if the people of Israel are lied to.”
Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to meet on Tuesday with Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas for a round of negotiations hosted by the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. The next day, the talks will move to Jerusalem, and on Thursday Mrs. Clinton will travel to Ramallah in the West Bank to meet again with Mr. Abbas, before driving to Jordan’s capital, Amman, where she is scheduled to have lunch with King Abdullah II.
In a reminder of the violence that could upset the peacemaking environment, militants from Gaza fired two rockets into Israel on Monday. Though they landed in open areas and caused no injury or damage, they brought the total number of rockets fired since Sunday to six, a steep increase, the Israeli military said. Last week, a rocket landed near a kindergarten in an Israeli communal farm near the Gaza border. The kindergarten was empty at the time because of the Jewish New Year holiday.
Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza, virulently opposes the peace talks. Its military wing claimed responsibility for two shooting attacks on settlers’ cars two weeks ago, timed to coincide with a peace summit meeting in Washington. Four Israeli civilians were killed in the first attack.
Yuval Diskin, the director of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, told the Israeli cabinet on Sunday that he expected an increase in terrorism by Palestinian militants trying to derail the talks.
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