Middle East Inside Line: Gaza is Boiling, Israel-Palestine Negotiations, Netanyahu to Washington

Gaza Rockets, Israel's Response: Five rockets in 48 hours have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, one of them taking the life of a Thai worker. In response, Israeli Air Forces carried out two air strikes on two tunnels which wounded 14 Palestinians, two seriously.

Middle East Analysis: Syria, Thomas Friedman, & “Why We Fail” (Narwani)

Latest on Israel-Palestine Negotiations: On Friday, the Quartet (Russia, the United States, the UN and the European Union) called on Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace negotiations to achieve a two-state solution within 24 months. The statement said:

The Quartet believes these negotiations should lead to a settlement, negotiated between the parties within 24 months, that ends the occupation that began in 1967 and results in the emergence of an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors.

The Quartet urges the government of Israel to freeze all settlement activities ... and to refrain from demolitions and evictions.

In response, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman bombarded the Quartet:

Peace will be established through actions and not by force.

The Quartet is ignoring the last 16 years of Israeli attempts, and is giving the Palestinians the impression that they can achieve their demands by continuing to refuse direct negotiations under false pretexts.

The Israeli government has made many significant gestures. Now it's the Palestinian's turn to prove that they are really interested in negotiations.

The Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was satisfied with the Quartet's decision and called it as "very important" but had one thing to add:

It is very important, but what is more important is for Israel to comply with what came in it so that we can launch the peace process.

According to the London-based pan Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, the chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority Saeb Erekat has demanded that the international community place supervisors in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem in order to ensure Israeli building halts completely. He said: "Even if Netanyahu would accept the position of the Quartet, in their call for a building freeze we wouldn't believe him because the building continues secretly."

On Saturday, UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon landed in Israel and went to Ramallah were he criticized Israeli settlement building by saying that it undermines peace efforts. He said:

The world has condemned Israel's settlement plans in east Jerusalem. Let us be clear. All settlement activity is illegal anywhere in occupied territory and must be stopped.

Having finished his meetings in the West Bank, General Secretary is going to return Israel to meet with President Shimon Peres. On Sunday, he is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak and to visit the Gaza Strip. He said:

I go to Gaza tomorrow to express my solidarity with the plight of the Palestinians here and to underscore the need to end the blockade.

Netanyahu to Washington: Meanwhile, Israeli officials have confirmed that United States President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

In interview with BBC television on Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked whether escalating the tone with Israel had paid off. She replied:

I think we're going to see the resumption of the negotiation track and that means that it is paying off because that's our goal.

Israel-Palestine: Gaza Rockets, Settlements, & Relations with Washington

Gaza Rocket Attack: After Gaza militants fired a Qassam rocket into the western Negev on Thursday, killing a Thai foreign worke, Israel's response was firm. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said, "With or without Goldstone [Report on the Gaza War], Israel will defend its citizens. Today we see how absurd the Goldstone report was."

According to the Israeli Defense Forces, more than 100 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since Operation Cast Lead ended in January 2009. Although Hamas did not take the responsibility, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai declared the Palestianian organisation responsible. Deputy Premier Silvan Shalon vowed that "the Israeli response will be appropriate. It will be strong," adding, "This is a crossing of the red line, which Israel cannot accept."

Israel-Palestine Video: Biden’s Settlements Humour

The killing came an hour after the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, stepped into the Gaza Strip. She said:

I condemn any kind of violence, we have got to find a peaceful solution to the issues and problems.

I'm extremely shocked by the rocket attack and the tragic loss of life. I said when I came to Israel that part of the reason for my trip to this region is to express my concern that we move as quickly as we can to proximity talks.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon joined the condemnation, "All such acts of terror and violence against civilians are totally unacceptable and contrary to international law."

As for the planned construction of an extra 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday said that the demands of the United States and the international community are unreasonable: "This demand from the international community is mainly an opportunity to increase pressure on Israel and to demand unreasonable things."

On Thursday, Lieberman's Deputy Minister continued the official line, "We have never asked the permission of anyone to defend ourselves, and we will proceed in a similar fashion."

President Shimon Peres told EU policy chief Ashton that Israel reserved the right to build in Jerusalem, adding that its construction policy in the capital has not changed in 40 years.

Moreover, Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, in an opinion piece published by The New York Times on Thursday, argued that the construction in East Jerusalem is not Netanyahu's invention, as it has been pursued since 1967 within Washington's knowledge. He added:

We should not, however, allow peace efforts, or the America-Israel alliance, to be compromised by Israel's policy on Jerusalem.

Consistently, Israel has held that Jerusalem should remain its undivided capital and that both Jews and Arabs have the right to build anywhere in the city.

Amidst intense chatter of a rift between the US and Israel, President Barack Obama, in an interview with Fox News, said that there was no crisis in ties, despite the construction plan. Obama continued:

Israel is one of our closest allies, and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that's not going to go away.

But friends are going to disagree sometimes...

There is a disagreement in terms of how we can move this peace process forward.

The actions that were taken by the interior minister in Israel weren't helpful to that process. Prime Minister Netanyahu acknowledged as much and apologized for it.

This indicates that Netanyahu has probably responded to Washington's demands even before Wednesday. Late Thursday, Jerusalem had reportedly agreed to postpone the execution of the contentious Ramat Shlomo construction plan, while not canceling it altogether.

Haaretz says that, in a phone call between Netanyahu and Clinton, the Israeli PM reportedly conveyed a detailed list of gestures Jerusalem was willing to perform in order to restart negotiations with the Palestinians. These gestures allegedly include the release of Palestinian prisoners, the removal of West Bank checkpoints and perhaps even a willingness to transfer West Bank territories to PA control.

On Thursday, French news agency AFP reported that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stated that peace with Israel was "impossible" as the government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not a real partner for talks. He called the construction plan of new East Jerusalem housing units as a "real obstacle," which would create "more wars and tension" in the entire region, adding that the Israeli government "cannot be considered a partner as long as it responds to calls for peace with settlements and the Judaization of (Muslim) holy sites."

Israel-Palestine: Have New Settlements Threatened "Proximity Talks"?

Another develepment on the Israel-Palestine "proximity talks" (see related analysis by Sharmine Narwani). On Tuesday, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved a new plan to build 1,600 more housing units in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

White House's spokesman Robert Gibbs, condemned Jerusalem's announcement from the White House. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said:

I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units. The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now.

The European Union's foreign-policy director, Catherine Ashton, said on Wednesday, "May I join Vice-President Biden in condemning the decision to build 1,600 new houses."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned Israel's plan. Then, according to the Ma'an news agency, the Palestinian Authority's leader Mahmoud Abbas warned that the move would derail negotiations before they had even begun and said:

It is apparent that the Israeli government does not want negotiations, nor does it want peace. The American administration must respond to this provocation with effective measures.

Israel's Interior Minister Eli Yishai apologized on Wednesday for causing domestic and international distress and stated that he was uninformed of the district committee's plan, because the matter was simply a routine, technical authorization. Yishai added:

If I'd have known, I would have postponed the authorization by a week or two since we had no intention of provoking anyone. It is definitely unpleasant that this happened during Biden's visit. If the committee members would have known that the approval would have escalated to such a situation, they would have informed me.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured his guest Biden that the programme, which had been drafted three years ago and only received initial authorization that day, could take several months to be granted final approval.