Netanyahu: Ready for direct talks

 Israel is ready to begin direct talks with the Palestinian Authority as early as next Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in advance of this week’s Arab League meeting in Cairo. The Arab League meeting is expected to rule on whether or not the Palestinians should hold direct talks with Israel.
The statement, said officials close to the prime minister, was the first time that Netanyahu has offered a concrete timetable for Israel’s participation in direct talks.
But Netanyahu’s statement does not necessarily bring the direct talks any closer. In the course of the briefing, Netanyahu told Mks that the Palestinians do not actually want to hold direct talks and that they hope that the Arab League will block such talks. 
Netanyahu accused the PA of creating various obstacles heretofore in initiating talks – first, he said, they cited the building freeze and later cited the issue of borders.
“If there was any doubt before that they were trying to avoid direct talks, now it is patently clear”, complained Netanyahu. “From our perspective, however, we are ready to go to direct talks as early as next week.”
Obama, Netanyahu said, “knows that Israel is ready for and trying to arrive at negotiations”.
“There is no doubt that direct talks are desirable for Israel. It is only through direct talks that we can raise the important topics and demands regarding our critical security interests”.
Netanyahu said that the subject of maintaining Israel’s security as part of any final status agreement was a major topic during his recent visit to Washington and meetings with top US officials including Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. 
“Security arrangements will be the first major section in any possible agreement with the Palestinians”, promised Netanyahu. 
“The security arrangements must stand in the event that there are changes to the political map of the Middle East, including the re-opening of an eastern front similar to the one that developed prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein” he added, offering the example of Iran, which in a very short period went from being a close ally to a sworn enemy. 
“We will not compromise on security”, asserted the premier, “and that is why I presented it as so crucial before the American government that we create a final status that will not be called into question by Iran and its satellites”.
Netanyahu also briefed Mks regarding the strengthening of the American stance on Israel’s nuclear policy.
“There was a growing impression in the international community that the American stance on this subject had shifted”, said Netanyahu. 
“It was important to me for Obama to take a clear stand refuting that impression and to reassert the US’s traditional stance on the subject. In the course of my visit, he did so on camera, through a written statement issued from the White House and also in the course of an intimate conversation.”The president said that there is no change in US policy on the subject”, he added. 
“He recognized that Israel is in unique state because of its size, the threats against it and its history, that Israel holds a special and different status than other countries and that it is clear that Israel must be capable of defensing itself opposite the combination of threats against it”.
The clarification of US policy, said Netanyahu “is a very important development for Israel. If there were those in the international community there were those who believed that the dials were turning against Israel, it is now clear that the opposite is true”.