ISRAELI DEFENCE minister Ehud Barak said yesterday he saw a chance to advance peace talks with Palestinians and that a recent policy speech by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was a major step forward.
Speaking in Cairo after talks with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Mr Barak said intense efforts would be made in coming weeks to get the peace process back on track, but said additional measures were also required.
“More steps must be taken in order to reach a situation where it is possible for Israelis and Palestinians to live in two states side by side in peace and with mutual respect,” he told reporters after the talks.
Mr Barak, echoing comments made by Mr Netanyahu earlier this month, said peace must include Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
Palestinian representatives and the Egyptian president ruled out such recognition and Israel’s other main demand – that a future Palestinian state be demilitarised. After his meeting with Mr Barak, Mr Mubarak spoke of Egypt’s initiative to establish a long-term ceasefire between Israel and the armed Palestinian factions in Gaza.
The Israeli defence minister refused to confirm reports that his visit came in response to recent progress in efforts for a prisoner swap under which Israel will release hundreds of Palestinian detainees in return for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was seized by Palestinian militants on the Gaza border three years ago this week. “The less we talk about the issue of Gilad Shalit, the better,” Mr Barak said.
Israeli officials have indicated that they will ease the crippling economic blockade on Gaza only after the kidnapped soldier is released.
Egypt has been mediating between Israel and Hamas, which seized control of Gaza two years ago, on a prisoner swap, and according to unconfirmed reports both sides have recently compromised on their demands.
The defence minister’s visit follows US president Barack Obama’s landmark speech to the Muslim world in the Egyptian capital earlier this month during which he stressed the importance of re-launching peace talks on the Israeli-Palestinian track.
President Mubarak said a peace deal was “within reach”, but only if Israel halted settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
Arab foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss Mr Obama’s Cairo address and Mr Netanyahu’s proposals for a demilitarised Palestinian state.
Mr Barak’s Labor Party colleagues pressed the prime minister to step up peace efforts during yesterday’s weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. Transportation minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer urged Mr Netanyahu to head to Egypt to advance peace talks by way of Mr Mubarak.
But ministers of the prime minister’s Likud Party were less enthusiastic. Minister of strategic affairs Moshe Ya’alon, a former army chief , said: “There is no partner on the Palestinian side, we just give, and we get nothing.”