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Israel to Response Positively to Mitchell Report: Sharon
Israel will response "favorably" to the Mitchell report prepared by an international fact-finding team on the causes of the Israeli-Palestinian violence, Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday.
Attending Monday afternoon's Knesset (parliament) caucus meeting of the Labor party, his ruling partner, Sharon revealed that Israel is putting the final touch to its response to the report which was published by the international committee led by former U.S. senator George Mitchell earlier this month.
But Sharon made it clear that Israel will issue two "small reservations" in the response. The first reservation is about the report's linkage between the ending of violence and a total freezing of Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Israeli government will point out that Israel has refrained from setting up new settlements but it has to satisfy settlers' " ongoing needs," or "natural growth" demands.
The second reservation is about the Mitchell report's severe criticism of the Israeli army's excessive use of forces.
Israel is expected to argue that Israeli soldiers have generally been restrained in their use of force against Palestinian demonstrators, according to a report published earlier Monday by Israel's Ha'aretz daily.
It was also reported that Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, a leading dove in the national unity government, reportedly suggested at a senior cabinet ministerial meeting on Sunday that Israel should entirely accept the report as a basis for further negotiations to end the Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The bloody clashes have lasted more than seven months and claimed lives of more than 500 people, most of them Palestinians.
He feared that a rejection of the report will damage Israel's international images and face great pressure from the United States and the European Union.
The Mitchell report urged Israel to halt all kinds of settlement activities, called on both sides to stop violence and resume negotiations after a cooling period.
Israel and the Palestinians have to respond to the report before Tuesday.
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