The idea was splashed across all of Israel's main newspapers as Paleostinian negotiators held talks about resuming peace dialogue in Brussels with envoys of the Middle East
Quartet... The Quartet are the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy....
of peacemakers -- in a session which Israel declined to attend.
"The Paleostinians are unwilling to enter into serious negotiations and therefore we should examine the idea of a long-term interim arrangement," a senior source in the premier's office told Israel Hayom, a newspaper considered close to Netanyahu.
Paleostinian negotiators say they are waiting for Israel to halt settlement construction on lands internationally understood to be part of what will become a Paleostinian state, before negotiations resume.
"In light of the instability in the region, the only possibility is to go for an interim arrangement, on condition that it is a long-term one -- and this is what we are currently examining," he said, referring the unrest sweeping the Middle East.
Paleostinians have pushed for negotiations of what are termed "final status issues," including the setting of borders, an agreement for Paleostinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, agreements on water and security, saying that after the 1993 Oslo Accords and the US Roadmap plans - which each were set to move forward in stages - they have lost faith that such an agreement would lead to statehood.
Details of the plan are still sketchy but the idea is believed to involve the establishment of a Paleostinian state within temporary borders, while at the same time holding talks on the principles of final status issues, the Haaretz newspaper said.
News of Netanyahu's intentions were leaked to the press as the Quartet sought to push both sides into renewing some kind of peace negotiations, which ran aground last autumn over an intractable dispute about settlements.
Netanyahu had been expected to send his chief negotiator Yitzhak Molcho to the Brussels talks, but decided to skip the meeting when it became clear there would be no direct contact with their Paleostinian counterparts, Haaretz said.
"The moment there were no direct talks, there was no reason to fly out there," a source in Netanyahu's office told the paper.
Since the expiry in September of a temporary ban on settlement building -- which Netanyahu refused to extend -- the Paleostinians have refused all direct contact with the Israelis, saying they will not talk while settlers build on land they want for a future state.
Members of the Paleostinian negotiating team, headed by Saeb Erakat, are currently in Brussels to negotiate the parameters of the Quartet statement that will be issued after a top-level meeting of the principals when they meet in mid-March, Paleostinian sources told AFP.
Erekat resigned as chief negotiator in February.