(Ha'aretz) Barak Ravid and Jack Khoury - A senior Israeli official said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's outline for the resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians called for negotiations on borders based on the 1967 lines, with land swaps - taking into account the current reality in the West Bank, i.e. the major settlement blocs. The goal of the negotiations will be to reach the reality of "two states for two people" - Palestine as a Palestinian state and Israel as a Jewish state. The Israeli official stressed that according to the understandings Kerry has reached with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas, each side will be able to declare publicly its reservations to the outline. The Palestinians are entitled to say that they will not accept the principle of Israel as a Jewish state, and the Israelis can say they are not prepared to return to the 1967 lines.
2013-07-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive