EU, ISRAEL TO MEET ON PEACE, JERUSALEM
Violence erupts across Asia and the Middle East following US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the issues of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the chances of reinvigorating negotiations on the peace process.
Mogherini has joined many EU leaders in expressing disapproval of the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. She said during a joint media address Monday that “the only realistic solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine is based on two states with Jerusalem as the capital of both.”
Netanyahu insisted that what U.S. President Donald Trump did was “put facts squarely on the table. Peace is based on reality.”
He said the reality of seeing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “doesn’t obviate peace, it makes peace possible.”
In Paris, the French and Israeli leaders sparred verbally Sunday, while new violence rippled across the region following Trump’s move.
In Jerusalem, a Palestin- ian stabbed an Israeli security guard, seriously wounding him in the first attack in the volatile city since Trump’s pronouncement Wednesday.
In Beirut, scores of Lebanese and Palestinian demonstrators clashed with security forces outside the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy, and Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo demanded that the United States rescind the decision.
The move upended decades of U.S. policy, and a longstanding international consensus, that the fate of Jerusalem be decided in negotiations. Israeli and Palestinian claims to the city’s eastern sector form the emotional core of their conflict, and Trump’s announcement was seen as siding with the Israelis and has drawn wide international criticism.
At a meeting in Paris with Israel’s visiting prime minister, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned recent violence against Israelis. But he also expressed “disapproval” of Trump’s decision, calling it “dangerous for peace.”
“It doesn’t seem to serve, in the short term, the cause of Israel’s security and the Israelis themselves,” Macron said.
He urged Israel to freeze its construction of settlements on occupied lands and called for other confidence-building measures toward the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called Trump’s decision “historic,” said Israel has maintained its capital in the city for 70 years and the Jewish connection to Jerusalem goes back 3,000 years.
“Paris is the capital of France, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” he said. “We respect your history and your choices. And we know that as friends, you respect ours.”
“I think the sooner the Palestinians come to grips with this reality, the sooner we move toward peace,” he added.
The exchange between the two allies set the stage for what could be a tense meeting Monday for Netanyahu with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels.
The meeting could be a precursor for what seems to be an emerging rift between Israel and the U.S. on one side, and Europe and the Palestinians on the other.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said Trump’s decision has in effect disqualified the U.S. from continuing in its role as the traditional mediator of peace talks.