Israel, Palestinian authority blame each other to avoid peace talks

  Israeli officials accused the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) for "making up excuses" in order not to resume peace talks, the Ha'aretz daily said Thursday. The recent quarrel started Wednesday evening as the Israeli Channel 10 news published that the Housing Ministry had issued tenders for the construction of 300 housing units in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot. In response to the publication, the PNA said in a statement Thursday that the United States' efforts to renew peace process were "doomed" as Israel carries on its construction in east Jerusalem. Following this statement, Israeli officials told the Ha'aretz daily that the Palestinian leaders "are not interested" in resuming the peace talks with Israel. In addition, the sources said that the tenders published in the Channel 10 report are not new but units decided upon already eight months ago. "There is no new construction but rather a technical procedure that requires re-publication of the tenders that has been already published in the past," the officials told the daily. "The Palestinians continue to invent excuses in order to evade the negotiations; yet again they are recycling old claims on the basis of mistaken data," they added. "They are running to the microphone so as not to do the basic thing of sitting down and talking about the issues. Israel continues to call for the immediate start of direct negotiations," they said. On a related topic, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics has released data for publication on Thursday charging that between the first quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013, the number of housing projects underway in the West Bank settlements jumped by 176.4 percent. The Palestinians and the international community, as well as Israeli left-wingers, protest against Israel's construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories annexed by the country amid the 1967 Mideast War. Israel's continuing construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem settlements were the reason that the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians came to a halt in 2010.