Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to retaliate if Palestinians declare a unilateral state, saying such a move would unravel existing agreements with the Israelis.

Netanyahu’s stern comments come the same day that a senior Palestinian official told Fox News they are considering a U.N. resolution to declare a Palestinian state. Palestinian officials had said Sunday they were preparing to ask the United Nations to endorse an independent state without Israel’s consent because they were losing faith in the peace talks.

But Netanyahu, speaking at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem, said there is “no substitute” for negotiations.

“Any unilateral action would only unravel the framework of agreements between us and can only lead to one-sided steps on the part of Israel,” he said. He did not elaborate further.

The statehood idea appeared to be largely symbolic. The U.S., Israel’s closest ally, would likely veto any initiative at the United Nations, and Israel controls the areas where the Palestinians want to establish their homeland. Nonetheless, the move reflected growing Palestinian frustration with the deadlock in peace efforts.

The Palestinians are upset over continued Israeli expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and claim that the U.S. has not put sufficient pressure on Israel to halt the construction. The lack of progress has led Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to threaten to quit politics.

Source/Full Story: FOXNews.com
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Envoy George Mitchell will be meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to bridge the gaps that have kept talks from resuming after a months-long lull.

Mitchell failed last week in talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials to bring the sides back to the negotiating table. Over the weekend, he traveled to Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials who play leading roles in mediating conflicts in the region.

Both sides appear to have dug in to positions that haven’t eased despite months of shuttle diplomacy. Israel refused to succumb to U.S. pressure to freeze settlement construction, and recently appeared to have persuaded Washington to back away from that demand.

Source/Full Story:  FOXNews.com

Source/Full Story @: Reuters

Israeli media reports said on Wednesday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly visited Moscow on Monday in a bid to dissuade Russia from selling weapons to Iran.

In Moscow, a spokesman for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied the reports.

A spokesman for Netanyahu said he had visited a security installation in Israel, reiterating a statement issued by his office on Monday amid media speculation about his whereabouts.

An unsourced report in Israel’s most popular newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, said the “security facility was actually Russia” and Netanyahu had discussed new arms deals being forged between the Kremlin and Iran.

Israel Radio reported after the Yedioth Ahronoth story appeared that Netanyahu, accompanied by his national security adviser and a military aide, boarded a chartered plane in a secluded area of Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport on Monday and flew to Russia, returning late at night.

The radio, which also gave no source for its information, said Netanyahu had visited a security installation in Israel before traveling to Moscow.

Media reports over the weekend, citing military sources in Israel and Russia, said a cargo ship that went missing in the Atlantic for almost a month had been carrying Russian air defense S-300 missiles to Iran that were detected by Israel.

Technorati Tags: Netanyahu, Russia, Iran

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, clashed face to face with her Israeli counterpart on Wednesday as the two countries remained at loggerheads over the expansion of settlements in occupied territory.

In what appeared one of the most tense encounters between the sides for several years, Mrs Clinton and Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, disagreed on both the US call for a complete freeze on settlement growth and Israel’s contention that the administration of George W. Bush, the former president, had signalled that some expansion was permissible.

“We cannot accept this vision about absolutely, com­pletely freezing all settlements,” Mr Lieberman said.

In response, Mrs Clinton underlined the US call for a “stop to the settlements”, a move she described as “an important and essential part of pursuing the efforts leading to a comprehensive peace agreement”.

The meeting at the state department in Washington confirmed that the countries remain at odds on settlements, in spite of the decision of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to endorse the goal of a Palestinian state. His declaration, which was subject to conditions, followed sustained US pressure.

Source/Full Story: FT.com

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded on Sunday to uncommon pressure from Washington by finally giving his endorsement — with conditions — to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

But in a speech answering President Barack Obama’s address to the Arab world 10 days ago, the right-wing leader’s defense of Jewish settlement on occupied land may fail to dispel tension with the White House, as the two men try to set new terms for the Middle East peace process in their first months in office.

Obama called Netanyahu’s shift in position on Palestinian statehood as an "important step forward," even as aides to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were denouncing the speech as "sabotaging" negotiations by restating Israel’s refusal to share the city of Jerusalem or accept Palestinian refugees.

Netanyahu, who has refused to back a state for Palestinians since he took office in March, said he would now endorse the establishment of a such a state — but only if Israel received in advance international guarantees the new nation would have no army and Palestinians recognized Israel as a Jewish state.

"If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarization and Israel’s security needs, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarized Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish state," Netanyahu said at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

"If (Obama) looks at the glass as half-full, this should be sufficient," Israeli political scientist Eitan Gilboa said of the speech as a whole. "But if he is looking for confrontation with Israel, he would say the glass if half-empty."

A senior European diplomat in the Middle East questioned how far it changed the substance of Israel’s approach. "It’s goodwill and good words but I don’t think it’s going to appease the Americans," the diplomat said. "He’s trying to gain time."

Source/Full Story: Reuters

Senior Israeli officials expressed irritation on Wednesday that President Obama had declined to acknowledge what they called clear understandings with the Bush administration that allowed Israel to build West Bank settlement housing within certain guidelines while still publicly claiming to honor a settlement “freeze.”

The complaint was the latest in a growing rift between the Obama administration and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to move forward to achieve Middle East peace. Mr. Obama was in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and due to address the Muslim world from Cairo on Thursday.

The Israeli officials said that repeated and ongoing discussions with Bush officials starting in late 2002 gave unambiguous permission to build within the boundaries of certain settlement blocs as long as no new land was expropriated, no special economic incentives were offered to move to settlements and no new settlements were built. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity about an issue of such controversy between the two governments.

When Israel signed onto the so-called roadmap for a two-state solution in 2003, which says its government “freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements),” the officials said, it was after a detailed discussion with Bush officials that laid out those explicit limits.

“Not everything is written down,” said one of the officials.

Source/Full Story:   NYTimes.com

Israel will continue to allow some construction in West Bank settlements despite US calls for a freeze on its work, a government spokesman says.

Mark Regev said the fate of the settlements should be decided in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

His remarks appear to be a rebuff to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said all such activity should cease.

Her comments came hours before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was due to meet US President Barack Obama.

Mrs Clinton said on Wednesday there must be no exceptions to President Obama’s demands for Israel’s settlement work to stop.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with her Egyptian counterpart, Mrs Clinton said that the president was "very clear" with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at their recent meeting that there should be a stop to all settlements.

"Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions. We think it is in the best interest of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease," Mrs Clinton said.

Source/Full Story:   BBC NEWS

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, arrived in the US today under intense diplomatic pressure to support the creation of a Palestinian state, with indications that he could soften his position on talks over a Middle East peace deal.

The hardliner goes into his first meeting with President Barack Obama tomorrow having notably refused to endorse the US policy of a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and after upsetting moderates by appointing a foreign minister who declared peace talks “a dead end”.

But two senior political figures in Israel today raised hopes that the Prime Minister could shift to accommodate the new US President’s commitment to making progress with the peace process and to help reach a broader understanding on how to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The reopening of talks with Syria is expected to be high on the agenda.

Mr Netanyahu, leader of the hawkish Likud party, returned to power by forming a unity government after Israel’s close general election in February, while Mr Obama has spent the first four months of his tenure projecting a new warmth to Muslim nations.

Source/Full Story: The Independent

Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu won Labor chief Ehud Barak’s agreement on Tuesday to a political partnership that could help Israel’s next government avoid friction with Washington on Middle East peace.

Under the coalition deal with Barak, an administration led by Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud would respect all of Israel’s international agreements, a Labor Party official said, a formula that includes accords envisaging Palestinian statehood.

With center-left Labor in his corner, Netanyahu would have a ruling majority of 66 seats in the 120-member parliament, a margin he could still widen by a April 3 deadline to form a government.

The agreement awaited ratification later in the day by the Labor Party’s executive. Barak, who is likely to retain his post as defense minister, faces strong opposition in the forum to joining forces with the hawkish Netanyahu.

Netanyahu and Barak, an architect of Israel’s recent Gaza offensive, agreed to the coalition deal after holding talks on the heels of lower-level negotiations, Labor officials said.

Labor backs the U.S.-supported peace process aimed at establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Netanyahu has shied away from supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Likud-Labor pact indirectly addressed the statehood issue that could put a Netanyahu government on a collision course with U.S. President Barack Obama, who pledged to pursue a land-for-peace deal that eluded predecessor George Bush.

“We are talking about respecting all the international agreements of the State of Israel. We are talking about there being a peace process,” said Labor negotiator Shalom Simchon, giving details of the agreement.

At a U.S.-hosted peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland in 2007, Israel agreed to negotiate a peace treaty to further “the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.”

Source: Reuters

Source: Reuters

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu opened coalition talks with the center-left Labor Party on Monday, seeking an alternative to a right-wing government that could lead to friction with Washington over Middle East peace.

Negotiators from Netanyahu’s hawkish Likud party met their Labor counterparts only hours after the prime minister-designate enlisted the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas party as a coalition partner.

Labor is led by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who faces stiff opposition within his party to an agreement with Likud.

The partnership with Shas, following a deal earlier this month with the Yisrael Beitenu party led by ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman, moved Netanyahu a step closer toward establishing a narrow, right-wing government.

Such a coalition could put Netanyahu on a collision course with U.S. President Barack Obama, who has pledged to move swiftly toward a land-for-peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

Source: The Associated Press

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s leading candidate for prime minister, said Saturday that Iran “will not be armed with a nuclear weapon.”

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Netanyahu said if elected prime minister his first mission will be to thwart the Iranian nuclear threat. Netanyahu, the current opposition leader and head of the hardline Likud party, called Iran the greatest danger to Israel and to all humanity.

When asked if stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions included a military strike, he replied: “It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true.”

Iran has denied it is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and says it is pursuing nuclear power for peaceful uses. It also denies it is engaged in terrorism, instead accusing Israel of terrorist policies against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, which were occupied by Israel after the 1967 Mideast War.

Full Story
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