Israel to Germany: Drop plan for Palestinian statehood
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will ask Germany’s leader in a meeting this week to drop a proposal to endorse a Palestinian state in virtually all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as the end point of Mideast negotiations, Israeli officials said Wednesday.
Germany is pushing the idea, along with Britain and France, as a way of restarting long-stalled talks.
Officials close to Netanyahu said he would raise Germany’s new proposal with Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting in Berlin Thursday.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a sensitive diplomatic matter.
Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Thursday’s talks with Netanyahu would be “politically intense,” but said “the chancellor speaks to Israel explicitly as a friend.”
This week, Israel approved preliminary plans to build more than 900 new apartments in a Jewish area in East Jerusalem, a move that drew condemnations from the United States, European Union and United Nations.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said Wednesday that the Israeli government’s action will “run counter to achieving” peace.
During his visit to Germany, the Israeli prime minister will also lobby Berlin to sell Israel a sixth naval submarine at deep discount, an official said.
Talks on the Dolphin submarine deal stalled last year after the Germans declined to underwrite it, as they had done with Israel’s previous purchases.
Israel sought up to a third off the $500 million to $700 million price for the new Dolphin.
“We’re still hoping for a discount, and the prime minister will raise this matter” in his meeting with Merkel, the Israeli official said without elaborating.
The diesel-powered submarines are widely regarded as an Israeli vanguard against foes like Iran.
Israel has three Dolphins in service, and two on order from Germany with delivery expected in the next two years.
After his brief visit to Germany, Netanyahu will travel for talks to the Czech Republic, which is seen as one of Israel’s closest European allies.
Separately, Austria’s foreign minister, visiting Gaza Wednesday, spoke of back channels for communications with Hamas.
The European Union, like the U.S. and Israel, defines Hamas as a terrorist group and has no official relations with the movement, but Michael Spindelegger said there are alternatives.
“There are ways in which we can get a message from them … and get a message to them,” he said.
“There are channels, for example through countries which don’t belong to the EU and have contacts with Hamas.”