Pressure mounts for Netanyahu peace plan
ISRAEL: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting
pressure to present his own peace plan rather than be faced with an
imposed solution or the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
President Shimon Peres, Israel's elder statesman and a Nobel peace
laureate, was the latest to add his voice to the growing chorus, urging
Netanyahu to act before events overtake him.
"If we don't want foreign plans, the best way would be a plan of our
own, and if we do that, others won't go ahead with theirs," Peres said
on Friday.
Peres was responding to reports indicating that US President Barak
Obama was preparing to lay out his own vision for a peace settlement
between Israel and the Palestinians.
First reported in the New York Times, it said the vision "could
include four principles, or terms of reference ... (which) could call
for Israel to accept a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders" of
before that year's Middle East war.
It also suggested the Palestinians could have to forgo the right of
return to land inside Israel, that Jerusalem would be the capital of
both states, and would also include principles safeguarding Israel's
security.
Netanyahu has said he will deliver a policy speech to the US Congress
in late May, where he is expected to present his plan.
But it's not just the fear of being pre-empted by Obama and a
settlement imposed by the United States that is spurring calls for
immediate and far reaching action.
Jerusalem, AFP |