On the eve of an Arab summit called to discuss Israel’s new government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made another appeal to Arab nations to work with him to achieve regional peace.
“We are committed to continue to quest for peace and security,” Netanyahu said in a statement Thursday distributed to reporters shortly before the prime minister made a speech in Jerusalem.
“Our position is that governments should keep commitments. We expect a similar commitment from others.”
The statement also said, “Our Likud government was the first to reach a breakthrough for peace with the Arab world, with the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli treaty of peace. We have kept our obligations since Camp David and Madrid,” referring to the 1991 peace conference in the Spanish capital.
Arab leaders are convening this weekend in Cairo for their first summit in six years. They are expected to develop a unified stance about the peace process and the new Israeli government.
Netanyahu convened top security and political advisers Thursday for consultations to discuss the Arab summit, next week’s visit to Israel by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Netanyahu’s own trip next month to Washington.
Netanyahu’s statement Thursday made no direct mention of the promise made by Israel – under the government of Shimon Peres – to redeploy Israeli troops from most parts of the West Bank town Hebron.
But later in the day, an official in Netanyahu’s office reportedly said the prime minister would meet Friday with Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai and Foreign Minister David Levy to discuss Hebron.
Israel was scheduled to redeploy its forces in Hebron in March, but Peres delayed the move after a series of Hamas suicide bombings that killed 59 people.
A subsequent agreement with the Palestinian Authority called for a redeployment in mid-June, after Israel’s elections, leaving Israeli forces in the enclaves where some 450 Jewish settlers reside in the Arab town of 100,000.
Palestinians have said Netanyahu’s handling of Hebron would be the first test of his commitment to the ongoing peace process.
In another development, the military wing of the fundamentalist Hamas group offered the new Israeli government a conditional cease-fire.
Izz a-Din al-Kassam said in a statement Thursday that it would stop attacks if Israel also halted action against its activists, released Hamas prisoners and lifted the closure imposed on the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the suicide bombings.
But Israeli security sources dismissed the offer, according to Israel Radio.
The sources said that real policy is determined by Hamas military leaders abroad. Regardless of statements issued from the territories, the leadership abroad would continue to plan and direct attacks, the sources said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
