Gaza and Israel plight could wreck Mideast talks

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080226/wl_nm/palestinians_israel_un_dc_1&printer=1

Worsening conditions for people in the Palestinian territories and southern Israel risk fatally undermining Middle East peace talks relaunched late last year, two senior U.N. officials said on Tuesday.

The talks meant little to Palestinians living under Israeli blockade in Gaza or Israelis under rocket fire from Palestinian militants, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes and Middle East envoy Robert Serry told the Security Council.

Israeli-Palestinian talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel were launched at a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November. But the sides remain divided on what any agreement should entail.

"The disconnect between (the) realities and the hopes and aims of the continuing peace talks seemed almost total," said Holmes, U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, who visited the region last week.

"Unless this chasm is bridged quickly, and the humanitarian indicators begin to rise and create some sense of hope for the future, the chances of success for the peace talks may be fatally undermined," Holmes said.

Israel has launched frequent air strikes and ground raids into Gaza in an attempt to halt militant rocket fire.

The militant group Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June, says it would cease fire if Israel stopped military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas is also demanding an end to an Israeli-led blockade that has cut many supplies to Gaza's 1.5 million people.

NEW STRATEGY

Serry told the Security Council that ordinary Israelis and Palestinians "understandably have little confidence that the political process is delivering" and there was a "growing sense of disquiet" about it in the region.

"The Annapolis process can only be sustained by real changes on the ground," Serry said in his first report since he was appointed in November. U.S. President George W. Bush has called for an agreement this year.

Serry said the "quartet" of Middle East mediators -- the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia -- had now agreed that Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority should develop a new strategy for Gaza. This would aim to stop rocket fire into Israel and reopen crossing points.

"If Hamas is also interested in the well-being of the people, (it) will I hope also be willing to cooperate with" the strategy, Serry told journalists later.

Holmes, who called conditions in Gaza "grim and miserable," was criticized by Israeli officials during his trip for referring to a "cycle of violence" -- a phrase one official said equated Israeli self-defense with terrorism.

But Holmes told the Security Council Israel's security concerns could not justify everything it did.

"Israel has legitimate security concerns and a right and duty to defend its citizens," he said. "But even in such circumstances, security cannot override all other concerns or justify so much damage to ordinary people's livelihoods and infringements of their human dignity and human rights."

Israel's U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, accused the Security Council of dealing with the "consequence" of the Gaza standoff -- the suffering of its people -- rather than the "cause," which he said was Palestinian rocket fire.

"The situation in Gaza could change in a split second, the minute the rocket attacks will stop," he told reporters.
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