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Israeli Minister Urges Negotiators to Stop "Playing Games"
Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin Wednesday urged Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to stop "playing games" over their peace talks.
In an interview with Israel Radio, Beilin argued that the statement released Tuesday by Israeli Prime Minister's Office, which announced that Israel had taken an indefinite "time-out" from the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for a final peace accord, is a misunderstanding from the start.
"It was a non-event... It was an internal misunderstanding. Someone said by mistake there would be a timeout. There is no timeout - we want to continue these talks," said Beilin, the most dovish figure in Prime Minister Ehud Barak's cabinet.
Israel had already reversed the statement about halting talks late Tuesday night, saying the talks between Israeli negotiator Gilad Sher and his Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erekat will be resumed on Wednesday after Tuesday's timeout.
Barak's spokesman Gadi Baltiansky also argued that since the botched Camp David summit between Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and United States President Bill Clinton last July, the two sides never held formal negotiations.
The summit failed to reach any agreement due to significant differences over the fate of Jerusalem, especially the sovereignty over the Temple Mount, and the return of Palestinian refugees.
Since then, there have been only contact and discussions between Sher and Erekat. Thus, Baltiansky said, there cannot be any halt of negotiations "that are not even taking place."
Analysts believed that the farce was only a trick of Barak to put pressure on Arafat, whom Israel urged since the Camp David summit to show more flexibility and openness.
However, the Palestinians outsmarted the Israeli side by announcing Wednesday morning that they will not return to the negotiation table until Israel explains the reasons behind Tuesday's short-lived crisis. So now, the negotiations are still not resumed.
Beilin said Wednesday,"we are running out of time, they are running out of time. They do not have another (peace) partner and we don't either... The process is far too important and critical for this kind of game-playing."
The time left for Barak to conduct peace negotiations is not too much. Israel's Knesset (parliament) will end its summer recess and reconvene at the end of next month.
Many believe that the first act in the Knesset after the recess will be a no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister, who now only controls one-third of the 120 seats in the parliament.
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