An Israeli decision to suspend plans for a new Jewish neighbourhood in the heart of Arab East Jerusalem has apparently paved the way for the imminent resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians, after a break of four months. Jerusalem city council last week approved plans by an American Jewish millionaire, Mr Irving Moscowitz, to build 70 Jewish homes at Ras al-Amud, just outside the walls of the Old City. But the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, has pledged to ensure that construction will not go ahead. Also, two left-wing Jerusalem councillors yesterday lodged a formal protest against the project, setting in motion an appeals procedure that is likely to last at least 30 days, during which no building work may begin.
Mr Netanyahu's opposition to the Ras al-Amud development stands in sharp contrast to his enthusiastic support for the continuing construction work at Har Homa on the outskirts of the city - the building project which prompted the Palestinians to suspend peace talks with Israel in March. And some of the most hardline members of his governing coalition - including the Infrastructure Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, and the former prime minister, Mr Yitzhak Shamir - have attacked him for "bowing to Palestinian dictates" in blocking the Ras al-Amud construction.
But the pay-off for Mr Netanyahu came yesterday, when his Foreign Minister, Mr David Levy, met the Palestinian Planning Minister, Mr Nabil Sha'ath, and the two agreed that substantive peace talks would resume within the next few days. The renewed negotiations are expected to handle such issues as the planned opening of sea and airports in Gaza, and a Palestinian "safe passage" land route between Gaza and the West Bank.
Although the imminent reconvening of the bilateral negotiating committees represents the end of four months of deadlock, neither Mr Levy nor Mr Sha'ath showed great enthusiasm in announcing the new talks. Their officials privately did not hold out particularly great expectations for rapid progress. Sources on both sides agreed that mutual trust was in short supply, with Israeli officials dismayed by intelligence reports linking the Palestinian police force with planned attacks on Israeli targets, and the Palestinians fuming over the Ras al-Amud affair, the work at Har Homa and other instances of Israeli settlement expansion.
While the two ministers spoke yesterday of the need to "work together", it may well be that US pressure - and especially the threat of a suspension of US aid to the Palestinian Authority - is the key factor in bringing the sides back together.
After yesterday's Levy-Sha'ath meeting, both the Palestinians and the Israelis briefed the EU peace envoy here, Mr Miguel Angel Moratinos, on the progress made. Reacting to reports of a diplomatic rupture between the Israelis and Mr Moratinos, a spokesman for the EU envoy noted: "Mr Moratinos spent more than one hour at the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The Israelis are very appreciative of his efforts."
David Horovitz is the managing editor of the Jerusalem Report
Israeli warplanes yesterday raided strongholds of the Iranian backed Hizbullah in south Lebanon, security sources said. Residents in the port city of Sidon, about 15 kilometres east of the site of the raid, said they heard the blasts of the missiles.
The air-strike came two hours after guerrillas fired rocket-propelled grenades on a position of Israel's allied South Lebanon Army militia in the SLA-controlled Jezzine region in south Lebanon. - (AFP)