Israel's foreign minister said Sunday a peace deal with the Palestinians is impossible under current conditions and that Israel should pursue a lesser deal instead — a concept the Palestinians swiftly rejected.
The latest diplomatic spat between the two sides came as
violence along the Israel-Gaza border simmered. After days of
accelerated Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel and Israeli
airstrikes in response, Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians on the border
early Sunday.
Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, told a
conference of Israeli diplomats that instead of a full peace deal, Israel
should seek a long-term, interim agreement on security and economic matters.
Palestinians have consistently rejected that approach.
"It's not only that it is impossible" to reach
an overall agreement, he said. "It is simply forbidden."
Lieberman said the West Bank Palestinian Authority — with
whom Israel has pledged to negotiate — is "not legitimate" because it
has postponed elections. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas remains in office
though his term expired almost a year ago, and there is no date for a new
election.
Lieberman is known for expressing hard-line views that
don't always represent Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu,
who says he seeks a negotiated, final peace deal with the Palestinians but has
declined to give specifics.
A statement from Netanyahu's office said Lieberman's
comments reflect "his personal positions," not those of the
government.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority
broke down in September after an Israeli freeze on settlement construction
expired.
The Palestinians say they will not negotiate as long as
Israel builds homes for Jews in the West Bank andeast Jerusalem, lands the
Palestinians claim for a future state.
U.S. mediators have returned to indirect talks to seek a
way out of the impasse.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib rejected
Lieberman's comments, saying most world governments — including Israel's —
recognize the Palestinian Authority as legitimate. He said the Palestinians
would not accept an interim agreement.
"It's too late now for anything except ending the
occupation and allowing for two states on the '67 borders," he said,
referring to 1949 truce lines that marked the West Bank until the 1967 Mideast
war, when Israel captured the territory.
Israeli Cabinet Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned
Sunday that if peace talks fail, "the whole world" is likely to
recognize a sovereign Palestinian state — a development
Israel would not welcome.
"Within a year, we will find ourselves in a
situation where the whole world — and I wouldn't be surprised if even the
United States — would support a Palestinian state," he said.
Violence again hit Israel's border with the Gaza Strip
Sunday, threatening a de-facto two year truce.
The Israeli military said it launched an airstrike after
spotting two men trying to plant explosives along the border. The Islamic Jihad
militant group said two of its members died in a clash with Israeli ground
troops. There was no way to immediately reconcile the two accounts.
The border has been mostly calm since Israel's Gaza war
two years ago, but clashes have flared in recent weeks. On Saturday, Gaza's
militant Hamas rulers warned they would escalate hostilities against Israel if
tensions didn't subside.
The Islamic militant Hamas, which rules Gaza, is at odds
with the West Bank Palestinian Authority and rejects negotiations with Israel.
Also Sunday, an Israeli court said a Palestinian whom
Israel is trying to ban from the city could remain while he appeals his case.
Adnan Gheith, who has led protests against Jewish
settlers in his east Jerusalem neighborhood, was to remain outside of Jerusalem
for four months starting Sunday evening. The military issued the ban, saying it
considers him a threat to the public order.
Rights groups worry the ban — based on an obscure
emergency regulation that predates Israel'sestablishment — could be
used to target others.