A barbed wire fence surrounds the West Bank settlementoutpost of Migron near Ramallah (Photo AFP)
Mideast Peace Efforts Teetering, Warns Palestinian PM -- AFP
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad warned on Monday that peace efforts with Israel based on a two-state solution are teetering because of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
"Unfortunately a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders is teetering and risks collapsing under the weight of 170 settlements and nearly half a million settlers," he said at a conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"Time has become more pressing, as far as such a solution is concerned, with every brick added to the settlements, every new road built for the settlers and every stone lengthening the (separation) wall," he said.
The two-state solution, backed by the international community, entails the creation of an independent, viable Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.
The current peace talks were relaunched at a US-hosted conference in November 2007, but have made little visible progress since.
They have been further affected by the political crisis in Israel, which is heading for elections early next year after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stepped down amid claims of corruption.
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My Comment: The Israeli Government is in complete disarray. Nothing is going to be decided until after the next election. Oh yeah .... there is also a U.S. Presidential election .... nothing is going to be decided until early 2009.