Israel”s prime minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, planned to tell visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday that his government will continue peace talks with the Palestinians, a lawmaker from Netanyahu”s party said.
Clinton was kicking off two days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on her first trip to the region as the top U.S. diplomat.
“I think that Hillary Clinton, when she comes today, will find Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to continue to hold negotiations, not only on economic projects but also political negotiations, a political process,” said Likud lawmaker Silvan Shalom, a former foreign minister. Netanyahu and Clinton were to meet later in the day.
That message would mark a change in the hard-line Likud leader”s long-stated position that peace talks are a waste of time because of the weakness of the Palestinian leadership. He has suggested in the past he would instead invest in the Palestinian economy while continuing Israel”s military occupation of the West Bank indefinitely.
But Netanyahu appears to have altered his stance, at least outwardly, since Israel”s national election last month, after which he was chosen to lead the country”s next government. Freezing peace talks would set Israel up for a clash with the international community and the U.S., its most important ally.
But Shalom, who spoke to Army Radio, would not say that Netanyahu supports the creation of a Palestinian state, the key goal of U.S.-backed peace negotiations. Netanyahu also openly opposes any division of Jerusalem, a central Palestinian demand.
