Israel to negotiate pre-1967 borders

IN a dramatic policy shift, Israel’s prime minister has agreed to negotiate the borders of a Palestinian state based on the ceasefire line that marks off the West Bank, a TV station reported yesterday.

Up to now, Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to spell out his plan for negotiating the border. A senior Israeli official would not confirm outright that the prime minister was now willing to adopt the ceasefire line as a starting point, but said Israel was willing to try new formulas to restart peace talks based on a proposal made by President Barack Obama.

In May, Obama proposed negotiations based on the pre-1967 line with agreed swaps of territory between Israel and a Palestinian state.

Now Netanyahu is basically accepting that framework, according to Channel 2 TV, offering to trade Israeli territory on its side of the line for West Bank land where its main settlements are located.

The official said he would not deny the TV report, while refusing to confirm the specifics. He emphasised that Israel would not withdraw from all of the West Bank.

“We are willing in a framework of restarting the peace talks to accept a proposal that would contain elements that would be difficult for Israel and we would find very difficult to endorse,” he said, answering a question about the Obama proposal.