Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told ministerial colleagues on Sunday that the
terms of a planned US-Israel accord, aimed at creating the climate for resumed
direct talks with the Palestinians, have not been finalized.
The clauses
below represent most of the likely components.
Netanyahu is set to seek
approval for such an accord from the 15-member security cabinet.
■ Israel
is to freeze all new building in West Bank settlements – but not eastern
Jerusalem – for another 90 days, with a US pledge that no further freeze will be
sought.
■ The US will use the pledged freeze to draw the Palestinians
back into direct talks. (The Palestinians have stated that they want a freeze on
all “settlement” construction, including in east Jerusalem.)
■ The freeze is to
run from 90 days after approval, but also be retroactive to September 26, when
the previous moratorium expired.
As such, it would cover all new
construction in West Bank settlements since September 26, including projects
that were frozen during the first moratorium, extending all that first
moratorium’s details and amendments, and presumably prohibiting local councils
and municipalities from issuing construction permits.
■ At resumed talks,
Israel is to immediately begin substantive discussions with the Palestinians on
the border between Israel and a future Palestinian state, as well as other core
issues, along the lines of the talks that began in Washington in
September.
In a joint statement with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on
Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “The United States believes
that through good-faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an
outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an
independent and viable state, based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and
the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that
reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security
requirements.”
■ The US is to intensify discussions with Israel on a
wide-ranging bilateral security agreement, to include clauses alleviating some
of the risks involved in a future Israeli-Palestinian accord, possibly including
US support for the deployment of Israeli troops in the Jordan Valley.
■
The US will use its veto in the UN Security Council against unilateral efforts
for Palestinian statehood and other proposals aimed at delegitimizing Israel or
preventing it from exercising its right to self-defense. The US would also
oppose such efforts in other UN and international forums.
■ The US will
support Israel if is targeted over the issue of nuclear capacities in forums
such as the International Atomic Energy Agency.
■ The US would give
Israel 20 F-35 joint strike fighter jets, worth $3 billion, in addition to the
20 that Israel has ordered and is paying for. This offer, aimed at
maintaining Israel’s qualitative edge, would be in addition to existing US-Israel
defense agreements.