Israel's "new" [old] plan for Palestinian borders

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PressTV - Israel to come up with new plan for Palestinian border:

Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:34PM
Ibrahim Husseini, Press TV, al-Quds

"According to sources at Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a plan to cooperate with the Palestinians.

The plan, the sources say, is aimed at establishing a Palestinian state with temporary borders as part of an interim peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which will take effect upon completion,

No further details or response have been issued by the Israeli officials. However, analysts have interpreted Netanyahu's willingness to consider such a strategy change in the light of recent uprisings and revolutions sweeping the Arab world.

Many of Tel Aviv's allies, including former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have now been consigned to history. And now, Netanyahu's new stance is widely viewed as a step back from his earlier preference to reach a final-status agreement within a year.

In the past, the PA has rejected similar initiatives and is expected to formally reject the new proposal as well.

Hamas movement as well rejected the initiative, questioning the sincerity and seriousness of the Israelis in trying to reach an agreement with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile the Israeli Newspaper Haaretz has reported that President Shimon Peres has asked the White House to arrange for him to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama over the coming month to discuss reviving the so-called peace process. It is expected that the idea will be tested there.

Peres is known to have privately voiced concern about the recent uprisings in the Arab world, and their detrimental impact on Israel's international standing in general, and its relations with Egypt and Jordan in particular.

Peres has also regretted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent remarks that under any agreement, the Israeli Defense Forces should retain control of the Jordan Valley.

Meanwhile, The Quartet on the Middle East has put off, for a month, a high profile meeting between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the Russian Foreign Minister and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The meeting was originally planned for mid- March on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Paris. On the agenda: to discuss the diplomatic process. Israeli officials have not denied that the meeting might have been postponed to give Netanyahu more time to come up with a new diplomatic plan.

Details of Netanyahu's initiative for an interim agreement with the Palestinians remain unclear for the moment. But observers believe that what Netanyahu is trying to achieve by this initiative is to persuade Washington to withdraw its support for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.



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