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JERUSALEM – Israel on Wednesday proposed a 10-month halt to construction in West Bank settlements as a step toward restarting Mideast peace negotiations.
Washington welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer, but the Palestinians swiftly rejected it because it did not include a building freeze in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the mainly Arab sector of the city they want as the capital of a future state.
The Obama administration welcomed the Israeli decision, but coolly.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued a statement saying the Israeli decision was a helpful move toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The administration’s special envoy for Mideast peace, former Sen. George Mitchell, welcomed the move but said it fell short of a full settlement freeze.
“But it is more than any Israeli government has done before and can help movement toward agreement between the parties,” he said, adding that he planned to return to the Mideast “in the near future” to resume his efforts to win agreement from the Israelis and Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded a total halt to settlement construction before peace talks can resume, but the Obama team has struggled in dealing with that demand.
On the one hand, the U.S. rejects the legitimacy of Israeli settlements and has harshly criticized Israel’s construction in east Jerusalem. But on the other, it wants the two sides to sit down and work out their differences.
Netanyahu said the “far-reaching and painful step” was designed to “encourage resumption of peace talks with our Palestinian neighbors.”
“Israel’s government has made an important step toward peace today,” Netanyahu said. “Let us make peace together.”
