For Immediate Release
July 15, 2009
Contact: Lynne Weil, (202) 225-5021
www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca28_berman/NetanyahuPeaceTalkProposal.shtml

Berman Calls on Abbas to Accept Netanyahu Proposal for Unconditional Peace
Talks

Washington, D.C. - Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, today issued this statement regarding proposed
unconditional peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian authorities:

"I am deeply disappointed that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
has consistently rejected Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's call for
unconditional talks on the Palestinian issue.

"As everyone familiar with Israeli politics knows, Netanyahu has taken a
politically courageous and substantively important step in endorsing the
idea of 'two states for two peoples,' and he has also taken significant
steps to ease travel and access in the West Bank by dismantling numerous
checkpoints and roadblocks. Nevertheless, Abbas is demanding that Netanyahu
establish a settlement freeze as a condition for a meeting. This is a
condition Abbas never required of Netanyahu's predecessor Ehud Olmert.
Moreover, in the context of bilateral talks, Abbas could raise his
settlement concerns directly with Netanyahu - concerns which, Abbas knows,
are being discussed intensively between U.S. and Israeli officials.

"For the sake of re-establishing an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and helping
to create an environment of peace, I call on President Abbas immediately to
accept Prime Minister Netanyahu's proposal for unconditional talks on
peace."

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