Amid rumors of renewed talks, PM says contacts must be meaningful

Israel seeks to engage in serious negotiations with the Palestinians in order to arrive at a comprehensive final-status agreement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, amid swirling rumors that a renewal of long-stalled talks may soon be in the offing.

Netanyahu’s statements came two days before US Secretary of State John Kerry was due to arrive in the region in another bid to revive the moribund peace process.

“Our fervent hope is for peace, a genuine peace that can be achieved only through direct negotiations without preconditions. We’re ready to enter such negotiations. I hope the Palestinians are, too,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili in his Jerusalem office.

“Our goal is not just to enter and put a ‘V’ to show that we’ve begun negotiations,” he said, using the Hebrew vernacular for a check mark. “Our goal is to persist in the negotiations, to engage in them consistently over a serious period of time in order to try to grapple with all the issues and come to an agreement that resolves the fundamental issues in the conflict.”

Such a process “will require time and determination and a systematic approach,” Netanyahu added. “That’s our approach. I hope it’s theirs, too.”

Israeli media reported Monday that the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was willing to enter a new round of negotiations, but PA sources denied the report a short while later.

Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told Maariv that Netanyahu was prepared to release a limited number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Abbas dropping the return to the pre-1967 lines as a precondition to resuming peace talks.

The Palestinians have so far refused to renew peace talks with Netanyahu, saying that Israel needed to commit to making the 1967 lines a basis for final-status talks and to freeze settlement construction beyond the Green Line. Jerusalem rejects these demands as illicit preconditions that would prejudge the outcome of negotiations.

On Tuesday morning, top PA negotiator Saeb Erekat rejected rumors that his side would forgo its demands and participate in US-brokered talks. He said Ramallah was willing to enter negotiations, calling its demands Israeli obligations rather than Palestinian preconditions.

At around the same time, Jewish Home party chair and Economy Minister Naftali vowed not to oppose talks with the Palestinians but added that he believed the creation of a Palestinian state would lead to bloodshed. “If you look at when there’s violence, it’s on the heels of peace [agreements],” he told Israel Radio.

On Monday, Netanyahu visited a school named after his late father Benzion in the West Bank city of Barkan, but made no clear statements regarding the peace process or the future of the settlements. “We need to believe in ourselves, in the justice of our cause, in our link to our land, which we will continue to develop, not just physically but also in terms of development,” he said. “The most important thing is to deepen the roots — because from these everything grows.”

On Thursday, Kerry will arrive in the region for another bid to restart the peace process in talks with Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian officials. Since taking office, he has visited a handful of time, engaging in intense shuttle diplomacy, yet so far with no tangible results. Sources in Jerusalem and Ramallah remain skeptical this week regarding the hope for progress.

Last week, Netanyahu told The Washington Post that he was willing to sit in a tent with Abbas until the two hashed out an agreement. But Bennett said he did not share the prime minister’s zeal for negotiations toward a two-state solution.

“It’s no secret that I have a different outlook than the prime minister regarding a Palestinian state,” Bennett admitted. He also reiterated his opposition to ceding any more land to the Palestinians. “I know the world will always clap its hands for us if we give up another piece of our land… I don’t want applause, I want a strong Jewish state that’s here in this land forever.”

Instead, Bennett called for a new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one based on joint economic development. Real peace, he said, will come from Jewish and Arab business cooperation in the West Bank.

The recent elections, Bennett said, demonstrated that the Israeli public wants the government to deal with the economic challenges facing them, not waste time on peace talks with Palestinians.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.