Is Bibi Opening The Door To Direct Negotiations With Palestine?

[HuffingtonPost]

By Crispian Balmer                

JERUSALEM, May 2 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin  Netanyahu said on Thursday he would put any peace deal with the  Palestinians to a referendum, raising expectations that direct  negotiations might soon resume following a two-year stalemate.                

It was the second time in just three days that Netanyahu has  publicly mentioned the possibility of holding a nationwide vote  on an eventual accord and came as U.S. Secretary of State John  Kerry met Israeli politicians in Washington to discuss talks.                

"If we get to a peace agreement with the Palestinians, I'd  like to bring it to a referendum, and I'd like to talk to you  about your experiences with that," Netanyahu said as he met  Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter.                

Switzerland regularly holds referendums on a broad range of  issues. Israel, by contrast, has never held a referendum in its  65-year history, and previous peace treaties with Arab  neighbours Egypt and Jordan were approved by parliament.                

Netanyahu leads a centre-right coalition that includes  supporters of the settlement movement, many of whom are fiercely  opposed to the idea of allowing the Palestinians an independent  state on land seized by Israel in the 1967 war.                

By pledging to put any deal to a referendum, Netanyahu could  be hoping to avert any immediate far-right backlash to a  decision to talk land-for-peace with the Palestinians, promising  that the Israeli people would have the final word.                

"There is a very serious effort under way to get talks to  resume," said a senior Israeli official who declined to be  named. "People are devoting a lot of time and effort to this. It  is possible and it is doable."                                

OBSTACLES                

U.S. President Barack Obama came to Israel in March and his  secretary of state has visited the region three times in little  over six weeks.                

In a sign of continued diplomacy, Kerry met Israeli Justice  Minister Tzipi Livni later on Thursday in Washington and U.N.  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations in New York.                

Livni has been designated by Netanyahu to be his chief peace  negotiator. She was traveling with one of the prime minister's  top officials and confidants, Yitzhak Molcho.                

The State Department offered no detail on Kerry's talks with  Livni, describing them as part of his "ongoing discussions ...  to explore possible ways forward to resolve this conflict."                

Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke  down in 2010 over the issue of continued Jewish settlement  building on occupied land. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas  says he will not return to the table until there is a  construction freeze. Israel says there should be no  pre-conditions.                

Unexpectedly highlighting the issue of referendum has fueled  hopes that the impasse might soon be overcome. However, there  was little sign that the core questions dividing the two sides,  including the status of Jerusalem, were any nearer resolution.                

"No one thinks we are near a historic agreement. But any  historic agreement will need national legitimacy," the Israeli  official said.                

The one bright spot, in the view of U.S. officials, was this  week's acknowledgment by the Arab League that their 2002 peace  plan may be modified to allow the two sides to trade land rather  than conform exactly to their 1967 borders.                

"Basically what they say is that the Arab peace initiative  is not something which is take-it-or-leave-it but it is  negotiable," Livni told reporters after meeting Ban in New York.  "This is ... a good message."                

The 2002 proposal offered full Arab recognition of Israel if  it gave up land seized in 1967 and accepted a "just solution"  for Palestinian refugees.                

The Palestinians have said that they would hold a referendum  on any eventual accord, with no guarantees that their diverse  electorate, including the far-flung refugee population, would  accept the likely compromises needed to seal a deal.                

Israel passed a law in 2010 for a referendum to approve any  handover of East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights, territory which  it captured in the 1967 war and has annexed.                

Moves are under way in parliament to expand that law to  include the West Bank, which has not been annexed and is under  Israeli military occupation.     (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Via: HuffingtonPost