Free Republic

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to agree to the creation of a Palestinian state in provisional borders, even before his conditions for a final-status agreement are met, former minister and veteran peace activist Yossi Beilin said. “I don’t think that Netanyahu, who is far from being a warmonger — he’s a very cautious person — [is ready to commit to] a permanent solution. Not because he doesn’t want it — all of us want it — but because he’s not ready to pay the price,” Beilin said Monday night. “But to speak about a provisional border with the Palestinians,...

Members of Congress and Palestinian leaders on Sunday questioned President Bush's support for an interim Palestinian state and urged stepped-up U.S. peacemaking efforts as Bush waited for the right moment to announce his Mideast plan. Bush and his advisers talked over the weekend about the details and timing of a long-awaiting speech outlining his ideas. White House officials would not rule out an address as early as Monday. Some aides want to see the president deliver it before he leaves Tuesday for a three-day summit in Canada of the world's industrial powers. The core of Bush's plan provisional statehood for...

U.S. President George W. Bush looks set to make public his privately-expressed intention to propose a Palestinian state - but the timetable, borders and nature of the nascent state are still far from clear. The New York Times reported Friday on its Internet site that White House officials are working on a speech for the President, to be delivered next week, in which he is expected to lay out his proposal for the advancement of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The chief Palestinian negotiator said on Friday that a promised U.S. proposal to create a Palestinian state must also set a deadline for...