Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday that Israel would never cede control of united Jerusalem nor retreat to the 1967 borders, according to a bureau statement.

The statement came after Egypt’s foreign minister said in Cairo last week that Netanyahu was ready to discuss making “Arab Jerusalem” the capital of a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority could abandon its demand for a freeze on construction in East Jerusalem in exchange for an easing of the siege on Gaza and a halt to Israeli assassinations in the West Bank.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit met the foreign ministers of Egypt, France, Jordan, Spain and Tunisia in Cairo last week to revive the nascent Mediterranean Union. He briefed them about Netanyahu’s talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a few days earlier, Israeli and European officials said.

Aboul Gheit reportedly said Israel’s willingness to give the Palestinians “100 percent of the West Bank” and the readiness to discuss Arab Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine indicate “openness, goodwill and a change compared to the past.”

According to the Arab foreign ministers, the Palestinians have agreed to waive their conditions for reopening the negotiations with Israel in exchange for other terms that Netanyahu could accept more easily.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday added weight to recent speculation that peace talks could soon resume between Israel and the Palestinians, telling lawmakers from his Likud party that he sensed “a change in the air.”

“In recent weeks I have felt that there is a certain change in the air, and I hope that this will mature, allowing the start of the diplomatic process,” Netanyahu told the Likud Knesset faction.

“Israel is ready for a peace process with the Palestinian Authority, without preconditions,” he said, adding that he has urged the Palestinians to enter such negotiations since he formed his government in April.

“We are serious in our intentions to reach a peace agreement,” he said, but cautioned that “diplomatic plans said to be in my name that have appeared in the media have no truth to them.”

But Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Quartet peace envoy Tony Blair earlier Monday that the prospects of Israel and the Palestinians reaching a final-status agreement within two years were unrealistic.

“It is important to hold an honest, open dialogue with the Palestinians without sowing delusions that are disconnected with reality and that will only lead to violence and frustration,” Lieberman told the former British premier. “It is not possible to reach a full agreement within two years.”

“This is not a realistic goal,” the foreign minister said. “We need to begin direct talks without committing to any timeframe.”

“In the past, timetables were set and not met and this led to violence,” Lieberman went on.

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Over 10,000 right-wing protesters gathered on Wednesday in Paris Square in Jerusalem near the Prime Minister’s residence to demonstrate against the temporary settlement freeze, writes Haaretz.

“When Netanyahu speaks of a settlement freeze he means a disengagement,” National Union MK Aryeh Eldad told the protesters.

Directly addressing Netanyahu, Eldad added: “Jews are not popsicles; you don’t freeze us so fast.”

Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika said to demonstrators that the prime minister must cancel the “Anti-Zionist” order to freeze settlement construction.

“Bibi, remember that Israel has not forgiven those who have harmed us, as proven by looking at the near and the distant history,” Mesika said.

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• West Bank construction criticised (news.bbc.co.uk)
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The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, affirmed that ‘the ball is in the Palestinian court,’ reports al-Jazeera.

He referred to the restart of the peace talks, after the announcement made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a plan that includes a halt on the construction of West Bank settlements.

‘The Palestinians will make their considerations based on internal considerations that don’t need to concern us,’ Lieberman said, adding that ‘instead, we should care about our friends in the world.’ As announced on Israel’s Army Radio on Thursday, Lieberman said that the freeze on construction will mobilize international support for Israel,  as it will demonstrate Israel’s support for restarting the political peace process.

However, Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz revealed on Thursday that Israel does not have the means to apply the freeze due to a lack of settlement inspectors. There are currently only 14 in the West Bank.

Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, expressed his hopes for the restart of peace talks with the Palestinians and urged the establishment of a budge for the surveillance of the settlements, but Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz rejected the request.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, offered the 10-month suspension of settlement construction.

Yaser Abd Rabbo, secretary of the PLO’s executive commission, assured that the Israeli proposal would be rejected by the Palestinians, who called it a ‘political trick’ which did not offer anything new to the peace talks. He asked the United States to place more pressure on Israel as the US and the international community welcomed the initiative as ‘a step in the right direction.’

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• Israel ponders temporary settlement freeze (cnn.com)
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Israel’s security cabinet approved on Wednesday a 10-month freeze on construction in West Bank settlements, in a bid by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restart stalled peace talks with the Palestinians.

National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beiteinu) was the only minister to oppose the move.

Shortly before the cabinet session, Netanyahu said the freeze would prove that Israel genuinely seeks to reach peace with the Palestinians.

“In the international circumstances that have been created, this step will advance Israel’s broad international interests. This is not a simple step, nor an easy one; but it has many more advantages than disadvantages,” Netanyahu told his aides.

Settlement building has been a key sticking point in U.S. efforts to restart Middle East peace talks; the Palestinians say they will not return to the negotiating table without a complete halt to construction.

Netanyahu added: “It will enable us to show the world this simple truth: The Government of Israel wants to enter into negotiations with the Palestinians, is taking practical steps to enter into negotiations and is very serious in its intention to advance peace.”

The prime minister was set to announce the settlement freeze at a special news conference on Wednesday evening.

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• Israel Offers 10-Month Settlement Freeze (abcnews.go.com)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Paris on Friday in an attempt to step up French diplomatic efforts to revive the stalled Mideast peace process.

Assad arrived at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris for talks with his French counterpart amid rising hopes that the French could persuade arch foes Israel and Syria to resume talks.

“It’s a very important meeting for Nicolas Sarkozy in particular who, ever since he arrived in the Elysee Palace, has been very keen to play a role in the search for peace in the Middle East,” said FRANCE 24’s Melissa Bell, reporting from the Elysee Palace.

Assad’s visit comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Sarkozy in Paris. According to the pan-Arab satellite TV station al Arabiya, Netanyahu expressed interest in meeting with Assad without preconditions.

With the Israeli-Palestinian talks hitting a new low in recent months, attention has focused on a possible revival of the Syrian track, as it is known in diplomatic circles.

Despite attempts to broker a deal between arch foes Israel and Syria, the Syrian peace track has repeatedly faltered over demands by Damascus for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the six-day 1967 war.

But hopes for a breakthrough in one of the most intractable areas of Mideast peace negotiations are slim.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would be prepared to hold immediate peace negotiations with Syria, as long as the talks were held without preconditions, reports Haaretz.

Netanyahu made the remarks in response to a question from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, with whom he met for more than an hour and a half in Paris on Wednesday. Their talks focused on reviving Middle East peace efforts and Iran’s contenious nuclear program.

Netanyahu’s declaration regarding Syria came hours after Syrian President Bashar Assad said he would not set any preconditions for peace negotiations with Israel.

“Resistance is the essence of our policy in the past and in future. We have no conditions to achieve peace but rather rights and we will not abandon them,” Assad said in a speech opening the 5th Conference of the Arab Parties titled “The Independent Arab Decision.”

Two days after Netanyahu’s visit, Assad will also be in Paris for talks with Sarkozy. French officials have said the two meetings are not linked, seeking to kill off any speculation that France might try to act as middleman between the two nations.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday ahead of Netanyahu’s visit that France fears that Israel no longer desires a Middle East peace deal. He also said that Paris remained deeply opposed to settlement building in the West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday addressed thousands of North American Jews at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, where he urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to relaunch peace talks immediately.

Abbas announced lastweek that he would not run for another term in an election scheduled for January, citing deadlocked efforts to revive peace talks.

“We should not place preconditions for holding talks, such preconditions have never been set in 16 years,” Netanyahu said, referring to the Palestinian demand that Israel completely halt construction in West Bank settlements before talks can resume.

Referring to the Palestinian demand in previous rounds of peace talks that Israel grant Palestinian refugees from around the world the right of return to the homes in Israel from which they were expelled, Netanyahu stressed that “the Palestinians must recognize that the fantasy of flooding Israel with refugees is gone.”

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the ship carrying hundreds of tons of weapons believed to have originated in Iran and meant for Hezbollah, which Israel intercepted early Wednesday, constituted a war crime that should be reviewed by United Nations bodies, reports Haaretz.

According to Der Spiegel, late on Tuesday night, special forces belonging to the Israeli navy stopped and searched the German freighter Francop. They found enough munitions to wage a small war: more than 3,000 rockets, hand grenades, armor-piercing ammunition and numerous crates of assault rifle rounds. Had the dangerous cargo not been discovered, it would have been enough for the Lebanon-based Islamist militants from Hezbollah to fight Israel for a month or longer, estimates Israeli navy commander Rani Ben-Yehuda.

“This was a ship carrying a massive amount of weapons which the Iranian regime tried to ship to Syria, and from there to Hezbollah,” the prime minister said during a press conference he convened at the Tel Aviv defense headquarters. “The bulk of the shipment included rockets whose aim is to hurt our citizens and kill as many civilians as possible. This constitutes a war crime.”

“The UN General Assembly should have investigated and condemned this crime and the UN Security Council should have convened a special session to debate this incident,” Netanyahu continued.

“This is a war crime which Iran intends to commit again in the future. The international community should be focusing on this, but instead, the world condemns Israel and the Israel Defense Forces and undermines our right to self defense,” he said, referring to Wednesday’s UN General Assembly debate over the Goldstone report, which accuses Israel of having committed war crimes in Gaza last winter.

“It is time that the international community and those states that bear responsibility recognize the reality and refrain from promoting a lie,” Netanyahu went on to say.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah denied that the arms were bound for them.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he would never allow any of the Israel’s leaders or soldiers to be put on trial for war crimes, says Haaretz.

Netanyahu opened his fiery speech at the inauguration of the Knesset’s winter session by blasting the Goldstone Commission’s report sponsored by the United Nations, that accused Israel of committing war crimes during its war against militants in the Gaza Strip last year.

Israel has the right to defend itself, Netanyahu declared, and would not acquiesce to a situation where wartime leaders or troops who participated in the operation stand trial.

Netanyahu angrily noted the report’s portrayal of Israeli leaders as war
criminals during his address on Monday. “The truth is exactly the opposite,” he said. “Israel’s leaders and its army are those who defended the citizens of Israel from war criminals.”

“We will not allow Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, who sent our sons to war, to arrive at the international court in the Hague,” he added.

When details of the investigation’s conclusions first emerged in September, Netanyahu blasted the commission as nothing but a “kangaroo court.”

“The Goldstone report is a kangaroo court against Israel, whose consequences harm the struggle of democratic countries against terror,” said Netanyahu during closed meetings.

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