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             Peace Debate Exposes Deep Rifts in Israeli Government

   by Reuters

   Israel's coalition government presented a divided front on Palestinian
   statehood on Tuesday as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry prepared a
   new mission to revive long-defunct peace talks.

   Appearing before a parliamentary committee, Israeli chief peace
   negotiator Tzipi Livni outlined a vision she said she shared with Prime
   Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of an end to the decades-old conflict with
   the Palestinians.

   "My policy and that of the prime minister is that a solution of two
   states for two peoples must be achieved," said Livni, who heads a small
   centrist party in the governing coalition.

   Far-right members of the government were having none of it, in a rare
   public clash of ideologies between political allies in Netanyahu's
   administration since it took office in March.

   "Two states for two peoples might be Netanyahu's position, but it is
   not the official government position. It is not part of its basic
   guidelines," Orit Struck of the Bayit Yehudi party said at the Foreign
   Affairs and Defense committee session.

   The party's leader, Naftali Bennett, repeatedly voiced his opposition
   to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank
   and Gaza Strip, saying it would ultimately be ruled by Muslim
   militants' intent on destroying Israel.

   Instead, the former Jewish settlement leader said, Israel should annex
   much of the West Bank, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war
   along with East Jerusalem and Gaza.

   Bennett took his party into Netanyahu's government and has not publicly
   raised objections to restarting peace talks that collapsed in 2010 over
   Israeli settlement building - suggesting he did not have to because
   they stood no chance of success.

   "It is our land," Struck said of the West Bank, claiming an area many
   Israelis call by its Biblical name, Judea and Samaria.

   "It is our land but the question is whether [Israel] stays our state or
   not," Livni replied, in a nod to what some advocates of a
   land-for-peace accord fear would be the loss of Israel's Jewish
   majority if it holds on to the West Bank.

   Such divisions within the coalition herald political trouble for
   Netanyahu should U.S. peace efforts make progress. The leader of
   Israel's main opposition Labor Party has already pledged to support him
   to offset any defections by hardliners if he clinches a deal with the
   Palestinians.

   Palestinian state

   Netanyahu has voiced support for establishing a Palestinian state next
   to Israel under a future peace deal, but has said it must be
   demilitarized and that there can be no Israeli return to pre-1967 war
   lines, which he has called indefensible.

   In addition, he has demanded that Palestinians recognize Israel as a
   Jewish state, a condition they fear would be tantamount to waiving any
   right of return of Palestinian refugees, a main issue of the
   Israeli-Arab conflict.

   Kerry was due to arrive in Israel on Thursday, on his fourth visit as
   secretary of state, for further talks with Israeli and Palestinian
   leaders on getting negotiations under way.

   Silvan Shalom, Israel's minister for regional cooperation and a member
   of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, said the idea is to go together
   to announce the resumption of negotiations without precondition.

   "We are awaiting an answer from the Palestinians. Are they willing or
   not to resume negotiations? The ball is in their court," Shalom told
   Reuters.

   Speaking to a U.N. committee in New York on Monday, the top Palestinian
   negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said: "Make no mistake, we are exerting every
   possible effort in order to see that Mr. Kerry succeeds."

   Kerry telephoned Netanyahu last week to voice U.S. concern at Israel's
   plan to declare legal four unauthorized West Bank settler outposts, a
   U.S. official said in Muscat on Tuesday.

   The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave no details
   about the call, triggered by a court document in which Israel said it
   had taken steps in recent weeks to retroactively authorize the four
   outposts built without official permission.

   Most of the world deems all Israeli settlements in the West Bank as
   illegal. Israel disputes this and distinguishes between about 120
   government-authorized settlements and dozens of outposts built by
   settlers without official sanction.

   The main issues that would have to be resolved in a peace agreement
   include the borders between Israel and a Palestinian state, the future
   of Jewish settlements, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status
   of Jerusalem.

   Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
   About 2.7 million Palestinians live in those areas.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/peace-debate-exposes-deep-rifts-in-Israeli-government/1665411.html