Israel is ready to cede parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians in the framework of a peace deal, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday ahead of the start of talks in Washington.

Partition in Jerusalem – at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict — would include a “special regime” for managing the city’s holiest sites, Barak told Haaretz.

He said the killing of four Israelis by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank on Tuesday should not stop the talks starting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Wednesday for their first face-to-face negotiations, has
publicly balked at dividing the city.

Barak’s disclosure suggested the Netanyahu government was willing to yield on Jerusalem, including its walled Old City where al-Aqsa, Islam’s third-holiest shrine, abuts the Western Wall, the vestige of Judaism’s two ancient temples and today a Jewish prayer plaza.

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• Barak Calls to Cede Parts of Jerusalem (israelnationalnews.com)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly to Washington on Monday evening to meet with President Barack Obama for the fifth time since the two leaders took office.

A senior source in Jerusalem said that Netanyahu hoped the meeting would enable him to regain Obama’s trust after months of tension regarding West Bank settlement construction. Netanyahu was planning to present Obama with a number of proposals for coordinating progress in the Middle East peace process, said the source.

Netanyahu and Obama have not yet managed to establish close and intimate working relations since taking leadership of their respective countries. The level of trust between the two appears very low, making it difficult to yield significant progress in the peace process.

Obama is not convinced that Netanyahu is serious in his declared intentions regarding the process, and the Israeli premier is not confident that the current American administration is committed to maintaining the same relations with Israel as those held by its predecessors.

Netanyahu will present Obama with a few new ideas for the political process, and he hopes that the consolidation of a new policy outline will assist the two countries in overcoming the “hurdles” that will surface when the temporary settlement freeze ends in September.

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• Netanyahu arrives for Obama talks (guardian.co.uk)
• Obama-Netanyahu ‘crucial’ talks (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Obama, Netanyahu seek to calm tensions (msnbc.msn.com)

The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee is set to approve an unprecedented master plan that calls for the expansion of Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, a move largely based on construction on privately owned Arab property.

The committee’s proposal would codify the municipality’s planning policy for the entire city. In essence, Jerusalem would uniformly apply its zoning and construction procedures to both halves of the city.

Before giving the go-ahead, the committee will give objectors to the plan 60 days to submit their reservations. This is the decisive stage in the planning process, because only rarely are plans altered.

Once the 60-day period expires, the plan’s approval is a fait accompli. Such a development would probably invite a hail of criticism from the Palestinians, Arab countries and the international community.

The United States has recently communicated its expectation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will prevent any change in the city’s status quo pending the conclusion of final-status talks with the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington early next month.

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President Barack Obama’s administration believes Israel’s delegation to next week’s nuclear security summit in Washington will be “robust,” despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decision not to attend, a top official said on Friday.

“We obviously would like to have the prime minister but the deputy prime minister will be leading the delegation and it will be a robust Israeli delegation,” U.S. National Security Adviser General Jim Jones told reporters traveling on Air Force One.

He also said that relationships between the U.S. and Israel are “ongoing, fine and continuous.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his planned trip to Washington, where he was scheduled to participate in a nuclear security summit hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama, government officials said.

Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor will take Netanyahu’s place in the nuclear summit.

Obama has invited more than 40 countries to the summit, which will deal with preventing the spread of nuclear weapons to terrorist groups.

Netanyahu was due to arrive in Washington on Monday evening and was set to take part in three or four conference sessions the follwoing day, before returning to Israel on Wednesday.

Officials said the PM canceled the trip over fears that a group of Muslim states, led by Egypt and Turkey, would demand that Israel sign up to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT.

A senior government official told Haaretz that that Israel was “disappointed” with developments in the run-up to the conference.

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• Netanyahu pulls out of Obama’s nuclear conference (guardian.co.uk)
• Netanyahu Won’t Attend Summit (online.wsj.com)
• Netanyahu cancels trip to US summit (newstatesman.com)

On the eve of her first trip to the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has said she will urge a restart of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Speaking in Northern Finland, where she is taking part in informal discussions with seven other foreign ministers, Ms Ashton said she “will make it clear …that we want to see the parties get back to talks.”

We know the solution lies in their negotiation: I believe the time is right to do that while things are quite calm comparatively.”

The EU’s top diplomat is travelling to the region just as plans for indirect talks between the two sides have been put in doubt after Israel gave the go-ahead for plans to build a further 1,600 homes for Jewish settlers in occupied East Jerusalem.

The timing – the housing move was announced just before US vice president Joe Biden was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and the substance of the decision have been criticised by Washington and Brussels.

Ms Ashton aims to appeal to Mr Netanyahu to use his domestic popularity to help start the talks. The relative calm of recent months is “the moment at which a leader has to display leadership by taking his people to the possibility of long-term calm and prosperity, and that can only be done by a settlement,” she said.

Spanish foreign minister Miguel Moratinos, also present at the Finnish meeting, said the Ashton visit is: “very timely and very important.” He also underlined the urgency of getting the talks back on track.

“If we wait for more than two years, it will be too late, because …there will be no object to negotiate, because there will be no land, and there will be no subject with whom to negotiate, because the Palestinian moderate leadership will not be able to maintain themselves as a peaceful partner,” he said.

The EU ministers were conscious of the limits of what Ms Ashton can achieve on her trip.

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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)
• Thousands in Jerusalem protest West Bank settlement freeze (nationalpost.com)

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)
• Israel offers partial halt to West Bank settlement building (guardian.co.uk)
• Israeli Foreign Minister: No Chance for Peace Deal (abcnews.go.com)

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)