By Jeffrey Heller
Jerusalem - A peace deal with the Palestinians will require a creative, new approach to issues that have defied resolution in past negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
Netanyahu, back from a Washington peace summit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at which they agreed to try to reach a framework accord within a year, gave no hint in remarks to his cabinet about any new ideas he may have in mind.
The US-brokered direct talks, relaunched on Thursday amid public scepticism in Israel and the Palestinian territories, face an early hurdle when a partial Israeli moratorium on housing starts in West Bank settlements expires on September 26.
Netanyahu has given no sign he will extend the freeze, and Abbas has threatened to quit the negotiations if construction resumes. Palestinians see settlements on land Israel occupied in a 1967 war as obstacles to the state they seek.
For the talks to succeed, “we will have to learn the lessons of 17 years of experience from negotiations and to think creatively - what's called ‘outside the box’”, Netanyahu told reporters at the cabinet session, referring to a peace process that began with the Oslo interim accords in 1993.
“In order to achieve practical solutions, we'll have to think of new solutions to old problems. I believe this is possible.”
Netanyahu's public pledge in Washington to pursue “historic compromise” has raised speculation in Israel the right-wing leader could show more flexibility than in the past in land-for-peace issues at the core of a decades-old conflict.
They include the future of settlements, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, security arrangements and delineating borders. - Reuters