Abbas asks Obama to get involved quickly

WEST BANK: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday urged Barack Obama to get involved in Mideast peacemaking immediately after becoming U.S. president, and to endorse a pan-Arab plan that offers Israel recognition in return for a withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

The “Arab Peace Initiative” was first proposed in 2002 by dozens of Arab countries that don’t have ties with Israel. It requires Israel to leave the lands it occupied in the 1967 Mideast War.

“We ask Obama to become immediately involved in the peace process, and to adopt the Arab initiative,” Abbas said at an economic conference in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Palestinians fired three rockets from Gaza at Israel after dark Saturday, but one fell back on the Palestinian side of the border and the other two landed in open ground, causing no casualties, the military said.

Hamas security officials said an Israeli surface-to-surface missile struck waste ground in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun night shortly afterward, but caused no injuries.

The military said troops fired at, and hit, a squad of Palestinians which had already fired at least one rocket and was preparing to launch more. The army did not divulge the type of fire it used.

There has been a spate of Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes since a truce between the sides started unravelling on Nov. 4.

Since then Israel has shut its crossings with Gaza, causing shortages of basic goods and fuel for Gaza’s 1.4 million Palestinians. It says the closure will continue until militants halt their fire.

Abbas’ appeal to Obama came after he took his case for a peace deal directly to the Israeli public. On Thursday, he ran full-page Hebrew-language newspaper ads telling readers the Arab plan would bring peace to the region.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the chief negotiator with the Palestinians over the past year, has welcomed the plan as a positive gesture but says its positions on key issues such as final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees are unacceptable. Of the Arab countries that border Israel, only Egypt and Jordan have so far recognized Israel. Accepting the Arab plan, Abbas said, would give Israel full recognition by 57 Arab and Islamic states. “Instead of living in an island of peace it will live in an ocean of peace,” he said.

However, a year of negotiations between Palestinians and Israel has not brought tangible results.

Abbas appeared unusually bitter Saturday, saying that Israel’s actions, such as continued construction of settlements and the West Bank separation barrier, contradict Israel’s declared willingness to make peace.

Nablus,

Sunday, AP