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Israel's Netanyahu Invites Abbas to Talk Peace

[AP/Washington Post] Aron Heller - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday invited the Palestinians to sit down immediately to talk peace. Netanyahu recently endorsed the goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel as part of a final peace agreement. "There is no reason Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and I should not meet, anywhere in this country, to advance the political process," Netanyahu told the weekly meeting of his Cabinet. Netanyahu said he already has made a series of gestures, such as the removal of several military checkpoints in the West Bank, meant to improve the Palestinian economy. "In recent weeks, we have made many efforts to ease their lives, especially regarding freedom of movement for Palestinians," he said. "But I would like to make it clear that all of these efforts are unilateral on Israel's part. All these efforts can only go so far, and the results will multiply many times if only there is cooperation from the other side....Let us make peace, diplomatic peace and economic peace. Let us cooperate on these projects," he said. Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, spent more than a year negotiating with Abbas, but the peace talks yielded no major breakthroughs.
2009-07-06 06:00:00
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