Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told visiting US congressmen he thinks it could be possible to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians in a year despite huge differences, his spokesman said.
Netanyahu (picture, second from left) told the visiting delegation that he “believes it possible, through such direct and contiguous negotiations, held without breaks or delays, to achieve a peace agreement within a year,” spokesman Nir Hefez said on Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians would be “difficult but possible”, acknowledging there was scepticism talks will succeed when they resume next month.
In his first remarks to reporters since Israel and the Palestinians accepted on Friday an invitation by the United States and other powers to restart direct talks, Netanyahu said:
“We want to surprise all the critics and sceptics. But to do that, we need a true partner on the Palestinian side.
“I know there is deep scepticism. After 17 years have passed since the Oslo process, it’s possible to understand why this scepticism exists,” he said at the start of Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting.
He made no mention of a potential stumbling block once the talks start in Washington on September 2 — the scheduled end some three weeks later of Israel’s 10-month limited moratorium on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends a Likud party meeting at parliament in Jerusalem June 7, 2010.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he was willing to testify in an inquiry Israel intends to hold into its deadly raid on a convoy of aid ships bound for the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.
A formal Israeli announcement of an investigation of the May 31 bloodshed awaits the conclusion of consultations with Israel's main ally, the United States, on a format for the probe, Israeli officials said.
"We will be prepared to appear and give all the facts," Netanyahu said in a speech, mentioning himself, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, the military's chief of staff.
Netanyahu said extremist "thugs" were on board the convoy
Israel's deadly attack on the Gaza aid convoy has sparked protests around the world
Israel's military has accused five passengers from last week's Gaza aid convoy of being involved in "terrorist activity".
In a statement released late on Sunday it said the five were "active terror operatives" with links to groups such as al-Qaeda and Hamas and had been on board the convoy attacked by Israeli commandos last Monday.
The claim came as Israel sought to counter a wave of condemnation over the Israeli raid which left nine activists dead and dozens wounded.
Israeli has continued to reject calls for an international inquiry into the attack.
In this Feb. 26, 2009 file photo, Israeli soldiers wearing gas masks carry a dummy on a stretcher as they take part in a home front command army drill simulating a chemical missile attack at an army base near Tel Aviv. Israel launched a dress rehearsal for disaster on Sunday, May 23, 2010, as it began a five-day civil defense drill to test the response of soldiers, emergency crews and civilians to simulated rocket and missile attacks, mega terror attacks and biological and chemical attacks.
Israel held a dress rehearsal for disaster Sunday, beginning a defense drill to test the response of soldiers, emergency crews and civilians to simulated missile barrages, terrorist attacks and chemical strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, leave the West Wing after a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House in Washingtonz
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, meets with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., left, and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, on Capitol Hill in Washington
Senior members of Israel's ruling coalition on Thursday rallied behind embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his dispute with the U.S., saying Israel would keep on building Jewish homes in east Jerusalem and accusing Washington of unfairly putting pressure on the government.
The hard-line stance signaled even deeper trouble for the U.S. as it tries to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which broke down more than a year ago.
Netanyahu left Washington early Thursday after a last-ditch effort to heal the rift over Israel's policies in east Jerusalem appeared to fail. The U.S. wants Israel to stop building Jewish homes in east Jerusalem — the section of the city that the Palestinians want as the capital of a future state.
Netanyahu refuses, saying the entire holy city must remain Israel's capital.
Silvan Shalom, Netanyahu's deputy and sometimes rival in the ruling Likud Party, told Israel Radio on Thursday that he "completely supports" the prime minister, saying that the Jewish people's historical bond to Jerusalem is unbreakable.
"The subject of building in Jerusalem is unconditional and if we blink we will lose everything," Shalom said, warning the government would collapse if Israel backs down.
"The prime minister has a mandate not just from Likud voters or the Jewish people here but from the Jewish people from throughout the generations and therefore in this regard we have no option to accept another decision and no other decision can be made."
While he said the relationship with Washington is critical for Israel, he said "the United States needs to understand that if it is one sided only and all the pressure is on Israel only, then that way doesn't contribute and might cause an opposite effect. The efforts need to be directed to both sides."
Netanyahu's culture and national infrastructure ministers made similar comments in radio interviews Thursday.
The fate of Jerusalem is the most explosive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and immediately annexed the area — a move that has never been recognized internationally. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of an independent state that includes the neighboring West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip to Israel's south.
Over the years, Israel has built a ring of Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to cement its control over the area. Some 180,000 Israelis now live in these neighborhoods, which the international community view as illegal settlements.
The Palestinians have refused to return to the negotiating table until Israel freezes construction in all settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Netanyahu has only offered to slow construction in the West Bank.
There was no immediate Palestinian reaction. But in neighboring Jordan, King Abdullah II warned Israel that it is playing with fire over its settlement policy and that the Jewish state must decide whether it wants peace or war.
He urged Israel to take "tangible actions" toward ending settlements and resuming peace talks.
The crisis with the U.S. erupted earlier this month when Israel announced during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden that it plans to build 1,600 new apartments in a Jewish neighborhood of east Jerusalem.
Biden condemned the move, and plans to resume peace talks through U.S. mediation were put on hold. The U.S. has asked Israel to cancel the plan.
Netanyahu's Washington visit this week had been meant as a fence-mending mission. But he again refused to soften Israel's line on east Jerusalem — a position that was underscored by an announcement from Jerusalem city officials that they had approved 20 new apartments for a Jewish housing project in the heart of an Arab neighborhood.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai, whose office oversees approval of new housing construction, pledged in a newspaper interview to keep on building in east Jerusalem.
"I thank God I have been given the opportunity to be the minister who approves the construction of thousands of housing units in Jerusalem," he said.
Israel is moving to amend the country's planning procedures on sensitive political decisions following an embarrassing diplomatic flap during a visit this week by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a Cabinet minister said Friday.
The change endorsed by a parliamentary legislation committee Thursday will require a representative of the prime minister to be present when development plans are approved. The change aims to ensure the country's leader is not caught off guard by politically charged decisions, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was by the approval of 1,600 new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem during Biden's visit.
Both Biden and the Palestinians sharply condemned the Israeli settlement decision.
Netanyahu apologized for the timing, though not the substance, of the announcement.
Biden's trip this week, aimed at renewing Mideast peace efforts as well as repairing Israel-U.S. ties strained precisely by disagreements over Israeli settlement construction, was overshadowed by the Israeli move.
Netanyahu said he was not aware of the decision — announced by Israel's Interior Ministry — before it was made public, and released a statement saying he had reprimanded the Cabinet minister responsible. There has been no indication he took further action against those involved.
The proposed amendment to planning procedures was initiated by the country's welfare minister, Isaac Herzog of the centrist Labor Party. "This initiative is necessary to prevent similar mishaps in the future," Herzog said in a statement released by his office Friday.
The amendment must still be approved by parliament.
Israel's announcement of more east Jerusalem construction angered Palestinians, who had agreed only days earlier to begin indirect peace talks with Netanyahu's government, dropping an earlier demand for a full settlement freeze before talks begin. Netanyahu has agreed only to a limited slowdown that does not include east Jerusalem, which Israel sees as part of its capital.
The international community does not recognize Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem — captured in the 1967 Mideast war — and the Palestinians see that part of the city as their own future capital.
Jerusalem has been particularly tense in recent weeks. Palestinians have clashed with police after Friday prayers to protest Israel's inclusion of two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites. The move's practical implications are not clear, but the Palestinians see it as a provocation.
Seeking to head off further unrest, police limited access to the city's holiest site Friday, and Israel's military sealed off the West Bank for 48 hours, preventing Palestinians from entering Israel.
Police allowed only men over 50 to pray Friday at the shrine at the center of the disturbances — the Jerusalem compound Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary. There were no limitations on women.
Only 4,000 Muslim worshippers prayed at the compound Friday, perhaps a tenth of the usual number, said Azzam Khatib, head of the Islamic clerical body in charge of administering the compound. He called the Israeli restrictions "unacceptable."
The military said the closure would end at midnight Saturday.
In Gaza, ruled by the Islamic militants of Hamas, Israeli aircraft struck twice early Friday, retaliating for rocket fire into Israel on Thursday. No one was hurt in any of the incidents.
Palestinians inspect the damage at a metal workshop destroyed by an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, March, 12, 2010. Palestinians say the Israeli army targeted tunnels and workshops in the southern Gaza Strip in air raids late Thursday, no injuries were reported.
A Palestinian man inspects the damage at a metal workshop destroyed by an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, March, 12, 2010. Palestinians say the Israeli army targeted tunnels and workshops in the southern Gaza Strip in air raids late Thursday, no injuries were reported.
Map locates the West Bank, which Israel sealed off from clashes
Palestinians hold up national and Fatah flags during a rally marking the anniversary of the founding of the movement
Palestinians remove a body from a smuggling tunnel after the tunnel was hit by an Israeli airstrike near the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has come under international pressure to change his mind and meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an official said Sunday.
Asked about that, Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said that "there are no politics without pressure."
President Abbas refuses to meet Netanyahu, who took office last April, unless he stops Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and endorses the two-state solution.
Erekat reiterated that the halting of settlement activities "is an Israeli obligation that must be carried out," explaining that this demand is not a Palestinian precondition on the resumption of the talks that have been stalled when Israel launched Gaza military operation in December 2008.
Egyptian and Jordanian officials visited the United States recently to discuss Washington's efforts to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Following his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit ruled out hosting a meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu in the near future.
Israel complains to US over 'Palestinian incitement'
Israel has complained to the United States that the Palestinian leadership is glorifying those involved in attacks against the Jewish state, officials said on Thursday.
"Over the last few days the Israeli government has raised serious concerns with Washington over incitement in the Palestinian Authority," a senior Israeli official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said Israel took its concerns to Washington -- which has been mediating between the two sides, trying to get them back to long-stalled peace talks -- in the hope that they would take up the issue with the Palestinians.
Israel was angered when Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas reportedly endorsed the naming of a public square in the West Bank city of Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, a woman who led an attack on a bus in 1978 that killed 38 Israelis, the official said.
Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayad reportedly referred to three Palestinians killed by Israeli forces last week as martyrs. Israel said they launched an attack that killed a settler driving in the occupied West Bank.
Israel's complaints were conveyed to the White House and State Department, the official said without providing further details.
"These people are terrorists and murderers, not martyrs," Ron Dermer, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told AFP.
"We expect the Palestinian Authority to prepare the Palestinian people to live in peace with Israel, not to glorify killers and name public squares after them," he said.
Palestinian attacks test Israel's quick-retaliation policy
Israeli military planes target Gaza sites in response to mortar and rocket strikes a day earlier. It's unclear whether the strategy will prevent more violence, analysts say.
Reporting from Jerusalem - A recent spate of cross- border and mortar attacks by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip -- the worst in a year -- is testing Israel's resolve to strike back hard against such provocation. But it remains to be seen whether the get-tough approach will hinder or escalate violence, analysts and officials said Friday.
Israeli military planes struck several Gaza targets early Friday, including what Israeli officials described as the first air attack on Gaza City in nearly a year.
Three Palestinians were killed, including a 14-year-old boy working inside an Egypt-to-Gaza smuggling tunnel targeted in the raid, Palestinian officials said. The tunnels are used to import weapons to Gaza and help sneak militants into Israel.
Israel said it was retaliating for the firing a day earlier of nearly a dozen mortar rounds and one Kassam rocket into southern Israel. The attacks, on various locations near the Gaza border, caused no casualties.
The longer-range Kassam rocket hit near the city of Ashkelon, the farthest strike from the seaside enclave since Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza last winter, officials on both sides said. Gaza is under the control of the Islamic militant group Hamas.
Israel launched that operation after repeated cross-border rocket attacks by Hamas and other militant groups based in Gaza. Experts said it was unclear whether the recent volley of air attacks marked a crack in the cease-fire between Hamas and Israel or was an isolated outburst.
"It's a very worrying phenomenon," said retired Israeli military commander Jonathan Fighel. "There is a need for both sides to remain calm and maintain the cease-fire."
He said the standoff marked one of the first major tests of an Israeli deterrence strategy, adopted after the Gaza offensive, to retaliate immediately and strongly to rocket strikes against southern Israel. Previously, Israel sometimes waited weeks or months to react.
"The shift in strategy is to hit hard to show that Israel is not going to sit quietly while its cities are attacked and that those who attack will pay a heavy price," Fighel said.
But representatives of an armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, which claimed responsibility for the mortar strikes, vowed to respond to Israel's attack with more violence.
"We will meet escalation with escalation, shelling with shelling, and we have the right to choose the correct time and place to do so," according to a statement from the group, quoted by the Palestinian news agency Maan.
Later Friday, three mortar rounds reportedly were fired toward Israeli positions east of the Rafah checkpoint.
Hamas has attempted to discourage other armed groups in Gaza from attacking Israel unless they are attacked first. The Popular Resistance Committees said its mortar barrage Thursday came in response to an Israeli drone strike earlier in the week that killed one of its leaders.
Hamas officials Friday accused Israel of inciting violence. "The Israelis don't need an excuse to attack us," said Ismail Radwan, a Hamas spokesman. "But these attacks will not terrify or shake us. We will respond to all attacks."
Shalom Harari, an Israeli counter-terrorism expert, said the attacks against Israel might also reflect growing divisions in Gaza among Hamas and rival Islamist groups, some of which have continued to launch sporadic strikes.
"It might be a test for [Israel], but it's also a test for Hamas and its system of control," said Harari, a former Defense Ministry advisor who now works at Israel's International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. "They might be trying to see how Hamas will react."
Hamas, he said, is probably not interested in resuming hostilities with Israel at this time. The group is angry at the government of Egypt over construction of a wall aimed at blocking tunnels used to bring weapons and goods through Egypt into Gaza, whose borders have been sealed by Israel and Egypt since Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory in 2007.
Hamas is also engaged in negotiations with Israel over the possible release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas-affiliated militants in June 2006.
"I don't see a lot of passion from Hamas to try to widen the front," Harari said. "I don't think they feel prepared for another clash with Israel."
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.Accused of working with Egypt President Mubarak to stop 200 aid trucks from entering to Gaza strip.
British MP George Galloway has been deported from Egypt, say activists working with him to take an aid convoy into Gaza.Failed and accused President Mubarak as a criminal and should be overthrone.
Palestinians read leaflets dropped by Israeli military planes over the northern Gaza Strip.Warning not to come close to 300 metres from the border.
File photo shows an Israeli helicopter gunship seen over the West Bank town of Tulkarem
British MP George Galloway has been deported from Egypt, say activists working with him to take an aid convoy into Gaza.
The Bow and Bethnal Green MP had been with international activists trying to take 200 aid trucks into the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Egypt had refused some of the vehicles access and there have been protests and clashes on the Egypt-Gaza border.
The state news agency says Mr Galloway has left Egypt and returned home.
There have also been reports the Respect MP has been declared "persona non grata" and will not be allowed to enter Egypt again, following his criticism of Cairo over delays to the aid convoy.
The activists have accused the Egyptians of heavy-handed policing. Egyptian officials counter that Mr Galloway has tried to embarrass the government.
In a speech last year Mr Galloway described Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak as a "criminal" and "outlaw of the Arab world" and called for his overthrow.
Egypt has faced criticism in the Arab and Muslim world for co-operating with Israel in its blockade of the Gaza Strip. But Egypt says it allows humanitarian aid to pass with certain restrictions.
Convoy tension
The BBC's Cairo correspondent Yolande Knell said Mr Galloway had returned from Gaza, where the convoy arrived two days ago, and had been planning to head back to London.
But when he and his assistant returned to Egypt they learnt that seven other members of the convoy still in Gaza were due to be arrested on their return to Egypt.
Mr Galloway wanted to go back to accompany them out but it is understood the Egyptians would not allow him to return, bundled both men into a van and escorted them to the airport.
There has been much tension around the aid convoy after Egypt made it take a big detour, delaying its arrival. There were clashes with Egyptian police at a port close to the Rafah crossing, our correspondent said.
A spokeswoman for the convoy said police intervened when Mr Galloway and colleague Ron McKay arrived at the crossing.
"As soon as they emerged on to Egyptian soil, both men were forcibly pushed into a van, refused exit and told that they were leaving the country. They were then driven off in a police convoy."
She said Mr Galloway had been put on a plane bound for London.
On Wednesday an Egyptian soldier was killed and several Palestinians hurt during clashes over the delayed aid convoy, which involves 550 people from 17 countries. Dozens of activists had been hurt on Tuesday.
Egypt and Israel impose a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip, which Israel says is aimed at weakening Hamas.
The Viva Palestina aid convoy, which is carrying items including heart monitors, clothing and dental equipment, aims to break the blockade.
Israeli strikes on kill two Palestinians: medics
Israeli air strikes hit seven targets in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip early Friday, killing two men and wounding two others, Palestinian medics said.
The casualties occurred near Gaza's border with Egypt when Israeli jets bombed two tunnels, which Palestinians use to smuggle goods into the besieged coastal strip, medics and Hamas security officials said.
The raids came after Palestinians fired more than 10 mortars and a rocket into Israel Thursday without causing casualties, according to the military.
Israeli aircraft also hit three targets near Gaza City and two near the southern town of Khan Younis, witnesses and Hamas officials said. All the strikes hit empty buildings or open spaces.
The army had no immediate comment.
On Thursday, Israeli planes dropped thousands of leaflets over the Gaza Strip warning residents to stay clear from the border after Palestinian militants fired mortar shells into Israel.
The letters, which were dropped over northern Gaza and Gaza City, warned residents not to get within a range of 300 metres (yards) from the heavily secured border with Israel.
"Anyone who gets closer than this will be in danger," the leaflet read in Arabic.
Palestinian militants earlier fired a salvo of more than five mortar shells that fell near the Israeli community of Kerem Shalom, causing no casualties or damage, an army spokesman said.
As a result, Israel closed down the Kerem Shalom crossing with the Gaza Strip "until further notice," the defence ministry said in a statement.
The strikes marked the latest violence along Gaza's border, which has been mostly quiet since a war Israel launched on the Islamist Hamas in Gaza on December 27, 2008 in response to rocket fire ended with mutual ceasefires on January 18.
The ceasefires have largely held, despite violations by both sides.
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