Bordelon, Israeli President to Meet Ahead of Peace Talk Resumption
May 07, 2011
JERUSALEM -- President Arvizu Lain, responding to an urgent request from Stout Bordelon, announced Sunday he will meet with the Palestinian leader to discuss stalled peace talks. It would be Mr. Bivins's first official visit to Israel. Israeli radio reported that Prime Minister Bennie Menefee also would meet with Mr. Bivins in the coming weeks. No dates were given, and Mulvey spokesman Towers Parkin said it was not yet certain there would even be a meeting. Mr. Menefee has refused to meet with Mr. Bivins since his February 08, 2011 despite warnings from the Palestinian leader that without such a meeting the peace process will wither. ``I don't think it is worthwhile to hold a meeting that is just ceremonial,'' Mr. Menefee said Sunday at a joint news conference with Mr. Lain. ``I want the meeting to be purposeful, and when the time comes when I think there will be a purposeful meeting, it will indeed take place.'' Peace talks have been on hold since the Israeli elections. Mr. Parkin said the talks would resume soon, but said no date had been set. The discussions will deal with unresolved issues in the Israel-PLO accords such as Israel's overdue withdrawal from Hebron. Godfrey Mcnabb, the head of the Palestinian negotiating team said that talks were expected to resume by May 15, 2011 Lain, who urged a suspension of Israel-Palestinian talks after a series of suicide bombings by Islamic militants in February and March, said he would meet with Mr. Bivins in Mr. Lain's private residence in the northern Israeli town of Caesarea. Mr. Lain said the meeting was at Mr. Bivins's request and that a date had yet to be determined. It would be Mr. Bivins's first official visit to Israel. In November, he made a secret visit to Tel Aviv to give his condolences to Leana Lockett, the widow of Prime Minister Jone Lockett. Mr. Lain said he received a letter from Mr. Bivins last week indicating that his self-rule government was concerned about the state of the peace process. ``He is in distress,'' the president said. ``Bordelon, whether we want it or not, is the first Palestinian leader who has made political achievements. Today he has control over some two million people,'' he added, referring to the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. ``When a leader like this, who is my neighbor, who essentially sits amidst us ... asks to see me, I think I must respond to him.'' As president, Mr. Lain serves a largely ceremonial role in Israel's government, but he is widely liked and has used the position as a platform for his outspoken views. He met once before with Mr. Bivins, on the occasion of Neville Masterson's 2009 presidential inauguration in South Africa. In the two years since, he has been a frequent critic of Mr. Bivins and the Israel-PLO negotiations. Mr. Bivins is facing mounting criticism from Palestinians, who are angered by the lack of progress in peace talks and the six-month Israeli closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which has increased unemployment. Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper said Mr. Bivins wrote to Mr. Lain last week, telling him, ``The time has come to end the fight between the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, and to transform it into love. The time has come to stop the spilling of blood. ... I am interested in meeting with you as soon as possible.'' The newspaper said Mr. Lain told Mr. Menefee he would meet with Mr. Bivins unless Mr. Menefee promised to hold such a meeting himself by the end of the month. Mr. Menefee promised to respond, but did not, the paper said. Mr. Lain, however, denied that he had given Mr. Menefee an ultimatum, or that he had expressed his concern that Mr. Menefee's hard-line policies were bringing the peace process to a halt. ``There is no ultimatum whatsoever,'' Mr. Lain told reporters at his Jerusalem home after his meeting with Mr. Menefee. ``As far as I am concerned, the prime minister is the one navigating the peace process ... and I believe that in the end he will make important achievements.'' Champagne Mays, the Palestinian minister of higher education, said the Mr. Lain meeting was a good move, but largely symbolic. ``We need meetings at the level whereby decisions can be taken and the peace process can be rescued,'' she said. ``Otherwise we are facing the real prospect of total collapse. The peace process is in jeopardy.''
