American Pressure Reduced?

Since Defense Minister Ehud Barak's meeting with George Mitchell last week, media sources have continued to argue over whether tension between the US and Israel has diminished and whether the US and Israel are making progress towards a compromise on the settlement issue.

Shimon Shiffer, Orly Azulai, Itamar Eichner and Smadar Peri in Yedioth Ahronoth report:

The prime minister [Binyamin Netanyahu] has recently begun to speak skeptically about the American administration's chances of extracting from the Arab states good will gestures towards Israel, such as permission to use their airspace. He suspects that the Americans' plans are not viable and that they only want to "squabble" with him.

However, it would seem that the US administration is sticking firmly to its established plan...

One official who is close to the talks between Israel and special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell said that the United States would not accept Israel's demand that recognition of Israel as a Jewish state be a precondition for negotiations. Next week Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Mitchell, who is expected to inform Netanyahu that the United States is going to be able to secure the consent of various Arab states to make advances towards normalization with Israel in the event that Israel first freezes settlement activity. The United States has already asked a number of Arab states, mainly Saudi Arabia, to make good will gestures towards Israel, but the answer the US administration received was that there would be no gestures without a cessation of settlement activity.

The defense minister promised that Israel would not allow any construction in the settlements that was not truly for natural growth purposes as long as he was defense minister, but Mitchell made it clear that the US administration wanted a comprehensive clamp on all construction in the settlements. "Progress was made in the meeting," said Barak after a one-hour meeting with Mitchell. "That said, we still have a way to go." After the meeting was over, Barak said: "We're preparing the ground for the beginning of a large peace initiative."

Next week Mitchell is slated to arrive for meetings in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He will meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Mitchell will present Netanyahu with the principles of the comprehensive peace initiative that the United States is planning. The goal is to hold talks between Israel and Syria and Israel and Lebanon in tandem with the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Matti Tuchfeld, Lilach Shoval and Yuri Yalon in Israel Hayom write:

Israeli officials are pleased with the results of the meeting that was held between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell.

"There's been a discernibly significant reduction in American pressure on Israel," said last night a political source. A joint statement that was issued by Barak and Mitchell noted that the parties reiterated their commitment to regional peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.

One high-ranking political official said he believed that ultimately the two sides would reach a compromise that would involve an Israeli commitment not to expand the settlements temporarily, but would complete construction processes in places where plans already existed.

The prevalent assessment following the meeting yesterday in London is that Netanyahu and Mitchell are going to decide on practical steps that are going to have to be taken by both sides in order to allow for the peace process to be set in motion.

A senior Israeli security establishment source said that currently the Americans are talking about the removal of 91 illegal settlement outposts, whereas Israel is talking about 26 settlement outposts that were built after 2001, three of which have already been removed. "Currently, the concern is construction in the legal settlements, in the major settlement blocs. We don't want to dry them out completely," said the senior security source.