Netanyahu May Accept U.S. Peace Talks Plan
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government may be willing to accept a U.S. proposal to resume peace talks that uses the 1967 borders as a basis of negotiations in order to counter a Palestinian bid for UN recognition.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government may be willing to accept a U.S. proposal to resume peace talks that uses the 1967 borders as a basis of negotiations in order to counter a Palestinian bid for UN recognition. Photographer: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’sgovernment may be willing to accept a U.S. proposal to resume peace talks that uses the 1967 borders as a basis of negotiations in order to counter a Palestinian bid for UN recognition.
Israel is prepared to accept a U.S. plan drawn up after Netanyahu’s visit to Washington in May that would include land exchanges on both sides, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. The draft calls for Israel and the Palestinians to use the 1967 lines as a starting point in talks, while recognizing that “demographic facts on the ground” will mean the final result will differ, Israeli broadcaster Channel Two said yesterday.
Netanyahu may have shifted his stance on the border issue since rejecting President Barack Obama’s call to use the 1967 boundaries as a starting point for negotiations on May 21. Days later, he conceded that Israel is ready to make “painful compromises.” He may now be moving further as Palestinians push ahead with their plan to ask the UN to recognize their statehood next month. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat dismissed the reports as a “public relations” game.
“It’s important for Netanyahu to shore up American support heading into September,” said Gerald Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar Ilan University outside Tel Aviv. “The U.S. proposal is a compromise that incorporates Obama’s statement that negotiations have to be based on the 1967 lines, and Netanyahu’s concern that the final result has to take into account demographic changes - meaning the settlements - and can’t be a return to those lines.”
Talks Stall
Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations stalled in September after Netanyahu refused to renew a 10-month freeze on construction in West Bank settlements and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he wouldn’t return to talks unless a total moratorium was called. The Palestinians seek an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“Why can’t we hear what Netanyahu said in his own voice, why can’t we hear him saying two-state solutions on the 1967 borders and I will stop settlements?” Erakat said. “Without hearing this, this is another public relations and linguistic game.”
The draft of the latest proposal reported by Channel Two also refers to Israel as a Jewish state, a formulation that the Palestinians have said they won’t explicitly support.
Statehood Bid
The U.S. and the other members of the so-called Middle East Quartet - the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - are looking for ways to get the sides talking again before the Palestinians go ahead with the bid for statehood.
Full UN membership would require approval by the Security Council. The Obama administration has said it would use its veto in the council to block the measure.
Differences that remain between Israelis and Palestinians are too great for negotiations to restart anytime soon, a U.S. official said on July 11 after a meeting of the Quartet failed to agree on a formula for talks.
More than 300,000 Jews live in West Bank settlements amid 2.5 million Palestinians on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. The UN has declared the settlements illegal and Palestinians have refused to return to peace talks unless Israel stops construction within the enclaves.
Another 200,000 Israelis live in parts of east Jerusalem that were also captured in 1967. Israel considers those areas part of its sovereign territory and says it will never give them up. Palestinians want to make east Jerusalem the capital of a future independent state.
To contact the reporter on this story: Calev Ben-David at cbendavid@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Louis Meixler at lmeixler@bloomberg.net
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