Israeli 'fear greater peace deal pressure': poll

Facing growing isolation over the impasse in peace talks, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is planning a new initiative to set up a Palestinian state within temporary borders, press reports said on Friday.The Israeli premier is largely expected to announce his new diplomatic initiative during a visit to the United States in May, in an address to the US Congress or at the annual meeting of the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC.

JERUSALEM — Israelis voted Tuesday in an election likely to keep hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm of government for a third term despite a turbulent record: no peace process with Palestinians, growing diplomatic isolation and signs of economic trouble ahead. The balloting capped a lackluster three-month campaign that was expected to leave Netanyahu at the helm of a coalition dominated by hard-liners opposed to concessions that could bring Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

The Palestinian president will invite Israeli politicians to the West Bank to try to make sure peacemaking is on the new government’s agenda, a senior official said Thursday, even as a top Israeli hard-liner proposed sidelining the polarizing issue.

Israel’s chief peace negotiator said Thursday it’s “good news” that the Arab peace initiative is negotiable and that Arab nations are supporting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians at a difficult time in the region. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters after meeting Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Thursday afternoon that it’s in the interest of Israel, the Palestinians and the international community to resume peace talks. “We need to find a way to do so, and we’re working on it,” she said.

JERUSALEM — Barack Obama sees Benjamin Netanyahu as a “political coward” whose policies pose a greater threat to Israel’s existence than Iran’s nuclear program because he does not know what is in the country’s best interests, it is claimed. The damning assessment of the Israeli prime minister, relayed by senior White House officials to an American journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, is the most graphic sign yet of the toxic relationship between the two men, who have clashed continually over the stalled Middle East peace process.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s president has warned that the Palestinians are liable to launch a new uprising if the Jewish state doesn’t do more to try to reach a peace accord, stepping up his criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Jan. 22 elections. The presidency in Israel is a ceremonial position and presidents generally refrain from political statements. But this was the second time in less than two weeks that President Shimon Peres’ criticism of Netanyahu’s approach to the Palestinians has found an international platform.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is dead if Binyamin Netanyahu wins next week's Israeli election, leading academics have warned – even if he forms a government with centrists rather than the ultra-nationalist party Jewish Home.