"I don't think we are to resume the negotiations soon," Nabil Shaath told journalists at Beit Sahur, near Bethlehem in the West Bank.

"The peace process is in a deep coma.... I don't think anyone wants to continue this negotiation," he said.

"There is no more credibility to this negotiation process. This is an exercise in futility, ridiculous...," he added.

After Washington failed to obtain a new Israeli freeze on building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as demanded by the Palestinians, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed indirect talks on the basic issues.

But the Palestinians have told the Obama administration that they refuse to resume negotiations with Israel without a halt to settlement building.

"The negotiating process is totally useless without terms of reference," said Shaath.

Faced with the impasse in peace talks, the Palestinians have begun to explore other alternatives including unilaterally declaring a state or asking for UN recognition of their independence.

Bolivia on Friday joined Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in recognising Palestine as "an independent and sovereign state" within the borders preceding Israel's 1967 occupation.

Israel opposes the steps by the South American governments, saying they go against an Israeli-Palestinian agreement that a Palestinian state be recognised only with Israeli approval.

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives approved a measure condemning unilateral measures to declare or recognise a Palestinian state, and backing a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians relaunched on September 2 in Washington have been suspended since September 26 when an Israeli moratorium on settlement building expired.

earlier related report
Israel steps up its spy games in Lebanon
Beirut, Lebanon (UPI) Dec 16, 2010 -Middle East tensions went up a notch after the Lebanese military found Israeli electronic surveillance devices on two strategic mountains and the Israeli military reportedly destroyed a third device in the Mediterranean off southern Lebanon.

These actions underlined intense Israeli intelligence-gathering operations in Lebanon amid Israeli concern that the country, increasingly dominated by Hezbollah, is becoming an Iranian satellite on the doorstep of the Jewish state.

The mysterious explosion in the sea off the southern port city of Sidon at 6:28 p.m. Wednesday came amid reports that Israeli helicopters were spotted in the area dropping flares while Israeli jets flew low over the city and the nearby Zaharani River.

The Israeli military said the unusual air activity was "routine."

The Lebanese army said that, acting on information provided by Hezbollah, it uncovered and dismantled surveillance devices on Mount Sannine and Mount Barouk Wednesday.

Sannine, 7,880 feet high, is northeast of Beirut. Barouk, which rises to about half the height of Sannine, is further south in the Chouf Mountains and closer to the Israeli border.

In June, U.S. officials confirmed reports that Iran, Hezbollah's mentor, had provided Syria, Tehran's key Arab ally, with an undisclosed number of powerful early warning radar systems in 2009.

Two of these were reportedly installed on both Lebanese peaks, presumably to detect Israeli pre-emptive airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.

The Lebanese army made no mention of any radars on the mountains in its report Wednesday. But it was significant that it acknowledged that Hezbollah had detected the supposed Israeli surveillance equipment. That indicated the Shiite movement, the most powerful military force in Lebanon, probably controls the peaks and that its counter-intelligence service is more active than state security agencies in tracking covert Israeli operations inside the country.

The radars may also have been intended to increase the accuracy of Hezbollah's large arsenal of rockets and missiles that would be unleashed against the Jewish state in the event of a new war.

The Israelis estimate that Hezbollah has more than 42,000 projectiles, including hundreds of guided missiles that can reach as far south as Israel's Negev Desert. That puts all Israel's main cities and towns within range for the first time.

In Hezbollah's 2006 war with Israel, the Shiite group fired nearly 4,000 rockets, most of them short-range weapons, into Galilee and northern areas during the 34-day conflict.

That barrage against the Israeli home front was unprecedented. Hezbollah's reported capability now, along with possible missiles strikes by Syria and Iran, would be infinitely more destructive.

The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot Wednesday quoted a senior officer in Israel's Northern Command as saying the country could be hit by 800 rockets on the first day of a new war.

"But on the second we will decrease the number of missiles to 400, on the third day to 200," he said.

Other officials have warned that despite Israel's efforts to build anti-missile defense systems since 2006, up to 1,500 missiles could hit Tel Aviv, Israel largest urban area, if hostilities erupt.

These and other warnings, including widespread criticism of the shortcomings of elements in this defense shield, underline that Israeli leaders believe the Jewish state faces what could be its greatest peril since it was founded in 1948.

This is because much of its military might, particularly its ground forces with their large tank formations, has been sidelined by the threat of massive missile barrages.

However, the "senior officer" warned that Israeli retaliation against Hezbollah, and possibly Syria and Iran as well, would be "10 times stronger" than the airstrikes that hammered Lebanon in 2006.

Wednesday's events mark the third time in a year that Israeli electronic intelligence-gathering installations have been found in Lebanon.

Equipment uncovered included devices designed to penetrate Hezbollah's private communications network that runs from the Israeli border, through Beirut and northward to the Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah's heartland where most of its long-range missiles are believed to be deployed or stored.

It's not clear to what extent how these discoveries may have impaired Israel's espionage efforts.

But it appears Israel has stepped up its electronic spying following the roundup of more than 100 alleged Israeli agents in Lebanon since November 2008. That's an unprecedented number and some held sensitive positions.

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