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Peace Talks to Resume Against Backdrop of Prisoner Release
(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon and Michael Wilner - Israel and the Palestinians are scheduled to begin substantive talks in Jerusalem on Wednesday under a complete media blackout, with neither the location nor time of the negotiations made public, nor any mention of what topics are on the agenda. The talks will take place following the release Tuesday night of 26 Palestinian terrorists. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said, "We set ourselves the goal of nine months in which we will try to reach something with the Palestinians. We've been trying for 20 years since Oslo, and for over 120 years of the conflict. The skepticism in the tone of my remarks is apparent, but we've decided to give it a chance." One government official said that Prime Minister Netanyahu believes that a Palestinian state is in Israel's interest because of demographic reasons, in order to keep Israel a Jewish democracy, and to fend off attempts to delegitimize it. But, the official said, "he also believes that a Palestinian state that looks like Gaza does today - hostile, in the Iranian orbit, and one that fosters terrorism against Israel - is something that we cannot afford."