Both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership have indicated a willingness to return to peace negotiations this past week.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pre-recorded a video which aired at the Christians United for Israel virtual summit on Sunday where he said that he was ready to negotiate and showed his support for the Middle East proposal from the Trump administration.
Prime Minister Netanyahu “Israel is ready for negotiations, I am ready for negotiations and believe that many Arab states hope we will enter such negotiations with the Palestinians”.
He stressed the importance of the Palestinians responding to and following the peace proposal suggested by Trump, imploring the Palestinians “not to waste another opportunity, not to waste another decade in the attempt to eradicate Israel. They should support Trump’s place for peace”.
Mr Netanyahu also praised US President Donald Trump for his strong stance against Iran.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian Authority text sent to the international peacemaking Quartet, and seen on Monday by AFP, said that the Palestinians are “ready to resume direct bilateral negotiations where they stopped” in 2014.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said on 9th June that the PA had drafted a response to the US proposal, but did not previously mention a new readiness for resume direct talks with Israel.
Ramallah has underlined however that the counter-proposal would be withdrawn if Israel went ahead with annexation “of any part of the Palestinian territory”.
The US launched its peace plan in January, in a 180 page report. The proposals call for a two-state solution (Israel and a future Palestine) with Israel retaining all of its current West Bank settlements, all of Jerusalem including the holy sites, and security control over the entire West Bank. The capital of the Palestinian state will be in “eastern Jerusalem”, in neighbourhoods beyond Israel’s security barrier.
The UK Government welcomed the announcement at the time, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas “for once, to engage with this initiative and to get talking rather than to leave a political vacuum”.
