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Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
Clinton urges Arabs to make gestures now toward Israel | |
2009-07-16 | |
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday urged Arab states to make immediate gestures toward normalizing ties with Israel in a bid to promote prospects for Arab-Israeli peace. However, in a foreign policy speech, Clinton stopped short of reiterating previous calls for Israel to freeze all settlements, saying Washington wanted Israeli action on settlements but understood it faced political challenges.
The tone was in sharp contrast to remarks she gave in May in which she said Obama has made it clear to Israel he wants no "natural growth exceptions" to his call for a freeze in West Bank settlements. She urged Arabs to do more for peace after saying that "progress toward peace cannot be the responsibility of the United States or Israel alone. "The Palestinians have the responsibility to improve and extend positive actions already taken on security, to act forcefully against incitement and to refrain from any action that would make meaningful negotiations less likely," she said. "And Arab states have a responsibility to support the Palestinian Authority with words and deeds, to take steps to improve relations with Israel and to prepare their publics to embrace peace and accept Israel's place in the region," she said. She hailed a 2002 Saudi initiative that calls for Arab states to normalize ties with Israel in exchange for the Jewish state's withdrawal from lands occupied in 1967 and the creation of a Palestinian state. But she said the Arabs should act now. | |
Posted by:trailing wife |
#1 They've been making gestures toward Israel. Mostly involving rockets and bombs, though I'm sure the judicious use of the middle finger is also included. |
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-07-16 22:19 |