World powers should isolate Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he unveiled tough terms for a Middle East peace accord, an aide to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said today.
In a major policy speech on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu responded to weeks of pressure from Washington by finally giving his endorsement - with conditions - to the establishment of a demilitarised Palestinian state.
Palestinians were dismayed by his demand they first recognise Israel as a Jewish state and his failure to heed a call they and US president Barack Obama have voiced to halt Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
"The international community should confront this policy, through which Netanyahu wants to kill off any chance for peace," Abbas adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo said.
"They must isolate and confront this policy which Netanyahu is adopting and exert pressure on him so that he adheres to international legitimacy and the road map," he said, referring to a US-sponsored 2003 peace plan.
Mr Netanyahu pledged to keep all of Jerusalem as Israel's capital - defying Palestinians' claim on the city - and hedged on whether Israel would ever remove West Bank settlements.
He ruled out the admission of Palestinian refugees to Israel proper and said Abbas must impose his authority over Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
The address, in which Mr Netanyahu urged the Palestinians to resume talks with Israel immediately, was welcomed by the White House as "an important step forward" for implementing Mr Obama's peace vision. The European Union called it "a step in the right direction".
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said mediators should challenge Mr Netanyahu on whether he was prepared to tackle territorial issues such as borders, Jerusalem and settlements.
"Netanyahu is talking about negotiations about cantons - the canton of the state of Palestine, with a flag and an anthem, a state without borders, without sovereignty, without a capital," Mr Erekat said.
Israeli national security adviser Uzi Arad told Israel Radio: "They (Palestinians) are saying this because they noticed that previous (Israeli) governments did not deal effectively, and did not set conditions in a categorical manner."
But Mr Netanyahu's cabinet secretary, Zvi Hauser, described the speech as an opening move in what Israel hoped would be discussions of a peace deal involving the wider Arab world.
Mr Netanyahu's speech met circumspection across the political spectrum in Israel, which has seen almost two decades of stop-start talks about a "two-state solution", a concept the right-wing Likud party chief had long balked at endorsing.