WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met for two hours in New York on Thursday, as Israeli officials sought to develop their own proposal to resume faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Netanyahu and Clinton met to discuss this week’s U.S.-Israel clash over Jewish construction in disputed East Jerusalem, as well as to try to resuscitate a negotiating round that has been on the edge of collapse for weeks.
The new round was officially begun Sept. 1 but suspended at the end of the month, when Palestinians refused to talk until Israel extended a moratorium on housing construction in the West Bank.
Israel wants to develop its own proposal to try to bring the Palestinians back to the table. The Netanyahu government aims to offer the proposal within the next few weeks, according to a diplomat close to the negotiations. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
Before the meeting, Netanyahu said his government wants to broaden the peace agreement to take in “many other Arab countries. . . . We are quite serious about doing it and we want to get on with it.”
It’s unclear whether the Israelis will yield to U.S. pressure to extend a freeze on construction in the West Bank, or whether they will use other incentives to bring Palestinian leaders back to negotiations, officials said.Tribune Co.
