Dershowitz Says Freeze Settlements for Peace
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should propose a conditional freeze on settlement building in the West Bank in order to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, Harvard law professor and prominent Israel supporter Alan Dershowitz wrote in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
“Now that Israel has a broad and secure national unity government, the time is ripe for that government to make a bold peace offer to the Palestinian Authority,” Dershowitz wrote.
Acknowledging the failure of a 10-month freeze on settlement construction in 2009, Dershowitz suggested that Israel offer to freeze all building in West Bank settlements “as soon as the Palestinian Authority sits down at the bargaining table, and the freeze will continue as long as the talks continue in good faith.”
Such a move would leave the Palestinian side with “no further excuse for refusing the Israeli offer to try to resolve the conflict,” while also testing the Israeli government’s commitment, as the latter “would no longer have the excuse that any freeze would risk toppling a fragile coalition that relies on right-wingers.”
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