Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak yesterday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the principle of a Palestinian state.
“The current government was formed with the commitment to respect the deals reached by preceding governments,” Barak told public radio ahead of a speech by Netanyahu on Sunday to lay down his peace policies.
These include “the roadmap which clearly states that the conflict must be resolved on the principle of two states for two peoples,” said the head of center-left Labour party, the most moderate member of Netanyahu’s otherwise right-leaning Cabinet.
SINGLE ENTITY
“If such a solution fails, there will be only one political entity from the Jordan Valley to the Mediterranean — the state of Israel. Under such a scenario, if the Palestinians have the right to vote, it will no longer be a Jewish state, but a bi-national state. And if they don’t have the right to vote, it will be an apartheid regime,” the former prime minister said.
Barak spoke a day after meeting US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who also met Netanyahu for four hours.
Netanyahu has yet to publicly embrace the creation of a Palestinian state, the cornerstone of international peace efforts.
The Israeli press has been filled with speculation in recent days that Netanyahu may finally do so in Sunday’s speech.
US President Barack Obama’s administration has been pressing Israel to commit to the two-state principle and to halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
Mitchell sought on Tuesday to allay fears of a fundamental breakdown in Israeli-American relations while alluding to abiding differences over Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and the formula for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
After meeting with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the envoy said it was “beyond any doubt that the United States’ commitment to the security of Israel remains unshakeable.”
But he also pressed for a peace effort, saying that Israelis, Palestinians and other parties “share an obligation to create the conditions for the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations.”
Mitchell, a former Senate majority leader who helped to forge a peace deal in Northern Ireland, came to Israel amid a rare public dispute with the US over settlement activity. The Obama administration has called for an unequivocal halt to all settlement activity. Netanyahu has said there will be no new settlements, but insists that building within existing ones should be allowed.
There has also been friction over Netanyahu’s refusal to endorse the notion of an independent Palestinian state.
‘OBLIGATIONS’
In a meeting with President Shimon Peres, whose post is largely ceremonial, Mitchell said Israelis and Palestinians “have a responsibility to meet their obligations under the road map,” the 2003 plan for the creation of a Palestinian state as a way to end the Middle East conflict.
The plan called for Israel to stop all settlement activity and for the Palestinians to dismantle terrorism networks, reform their political institutions and curb any incitement to violence.
“It’s not just their responsibility,” Mitchell said. “We believe it’s in their security interest as well.”
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