Israeli newspaper Maariv revealed on Tuesday a Palestinian offer for the resumption of negotiations with Israel based on the freezing of Jewish settlement building in the West Bank for three months and the Israeli announcement that the resumption of negotiations will stand on the premise that Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders. This will be in exchange for Palestine postponing for a period of three months its request to the United Nations General Assembly for recognition of a Palestinian state.
Israeli daily Yedi'ot Aharonot unveiled some of the content of President Barack Obama’s upcoming speech at the Jewish organization AIPAC’s annual conference this Thursday. It said Obama was to urge the Palestinian Authority not to unilaterally announce a Palestinian state. He was also to stress the importance of Palestinians abiding by the terms of the International Quartet, including recognizing the state of Israel and renouncing terrorism as well as refraining from taking any unilateral actions.
The daily made clear that it received various drafts of the awaited speech, which also indicated that Obama would in turn urge Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders with border adjustments to guarantee inclusion of the biggest Israeli settlement clusters. It said that the drafts were procured from top advisor to Netanyahu, Yaakov Amidror, who had just returned from the United States.
On another note, the Israeli media agreed that Obama’s decision to speak at the AIPAC conference is an indication that the president had decided to completely refrain from exerting any form of pressure on Netanyahu during the visit.
Ayala Hasson, Israeli media personality and political commentator, said on Israel’s Channel One that Netanyahu is aware that he is heading to Washington under the best conditions, because Obama will go out of his way to prove to the Jewish organizations on the eve of presidential elections that he is the best choice when it comes to preserving the interests of Israel.
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