Netanyahu to tell Obama: I’m ready to be generous in curbing settlements
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to tell U.S. President Barack Obama that he was “very serious” about wanting to advance peace talks with the Palestinians during the two leaders’ scheduled meeting on Monday.
The last-minute scheduling of Netanyahu’s White House meeting, after Israeli officials said over the past several weeks that Netanyahu hoped to see Obama, was widely seen as a sign of strained relations between the two leaders.
“We mean business,” Netanyahu planned to tell the American president, and add that Israel was ready to be “generous” in scaling back the construction in West Bank settlements.
In the past, Netanyahu has rebuffed Obama’s calls for a complete freeze on settlement activity, including the expansion of current ones. The Palestinians have demanded a settlement freeze as a condition for the resumption of stalled peace talks. The opposing standpoints have effectively brought the peace process to a halt.
Netanyahu was further set to tell Obama that there was never any Israeli intention to halt settlement construction before entering into talks with the Palestinians. “What more do I need to do?” he was to ask.
Sources close to the prime minister have said that Netanyahu is convinced that he is doing everything in his power to advance the peace process.
Netanyahu was also to voice his willingness to make concessions in efforts to achieve an agreement. However, he was to stress his refusal to compromise Israel’s security in the process, placing an emphasis on the importance of preventing the influx of weapons into any territory that Israel should withdraw from under a future deal.
He was to add that up until this point, the security arrangements between Israel and Lebanon and Israel and Gaza have proven ineffective.
Source: Haaretz News Net
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