EU Guidelines on Settlements Will Undermine Talks, Says Netanyahu
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Monday that the European Union’s new guidelines on Israel’s settlements in the West Bank undercut the freshly resumed peace process and strengthen the Palestinian position.
In a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, where he was recovering from a recent hernia operation, Netanyahu assured Westerwelle that Israel was committed to peace and working actively toward achieving it.
Nevertheless, he warned, the European Union’s guidelines have prompted the Palestinians to demand impossible results.
Netanyahu added that a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict could be achieved only through negotiations between the two sides, and not by the dictate of any external force.
The prime minister held the talks with Germany’s top diplomat just hours after Israel released the names of the 26 Palestinian prisoners jailed prior to the Oslo Accords who are slated to be released this week as part of a goodwill gesture to jumpstart peace talks.
Read more at Haaretz.com.
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