Obama to present fresh peace plan envisaging Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital

Israelis criticize two-state solution; concerns inside Israel over U.S. position

President Mubarak cancels Washington trip over grandson's death

Jordan FM says Arab peace initiative won't be amended

"Jerusalem will remain Israel’s eternal capital forever.” So stated Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom on Wednesday at a special Knesset session marking Jerusalem Day, adding, “This is not a promise; it’s a fact.”

Participating in the special Knesset session were Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, his predecessor Uri Lupoliansky, and members of the Jerusalem City Council.

Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, a former Jerusalem City Council member, opened the session by calling upon the Mayor and the City Council to do all they can to restore to Israeli citizens’ a sense of pride in their capital city. Former Speaker Dalia Itzik (Kadima), still reeling from the revelations that she spent more than NIS 100,000 of public monies to refurbish her home for "official business," spoke of poverty in the capital.

But Minister Shalom, still considered to be a political rival of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, grabbed the limelight with his unequivocal statement. “We disagree among ourselves on many issues, but regarding Jerusalem, the overwhelming majority agrees. There are no two Jerusalems. There is one Jerusalem, and it will never be a topic for discussion.”

“The future of Jerusalem is like the future of the State of Israel, and like that of the entire Jewish nation," Shalom said. "Jerusalem will never be divided, and we will never give up Jerusalem.”

Minister Shalom, who served as Foreign Minister in Ariel Sharon’s government, mentioned the Jewish People’s unshakeable historical bonds with the city: “King David made it his capital nearly 3,000 years ago, and King Solomon built the first Holy Temple on Mt. Moriah, the site of the Temple Mount. When it fell and was torn away from us, the exiled Jews in Babylon wept and vowed never to forget it… Ever since, it has been the very heart of the Jewish People, and is one of the most blatant expressions of our Jewishness.”

“As a minister in the Government of Israel, I am proud to be among those standing guard on behalf of Jerusalem,” Shalom stated.

Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni, who led negotiations with the Palestinian Authority under the previous government that reportedly included an agreement to divide Jerusalem, also spoke at the special session: “I suggest to all of us not to preach and not to divide us into those who love Jerusalem, those who are more obligated to her, and those who are less… The State of Israel must have a vision that is translated into a program; the way to protect Israel, its security, its national interests, and Jerusalem and the holy sites – is by translating the vision into an Israeli initiative.

We won’t preserve Jerusalem by saying 'no' to everything.” MK Sha’ul Mofaz, a rival of Livni within the Kadima party, took a different stance in his speech: “It is an unshakeable commandment for generations to work for Jerusalem’s future and permanent unification. We must say this with a loud voice and with daily actions, in order that, Heaven forefend, not even one weak voice should be sounded in our midst calling to lift a hand against our eternal capital.”

Israel maintains its liberty to operate against Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's National Security Advisor Uzi Arad said Thursday.

Arad made the remarks to Israel Army Radio, saying that the Jewish state will not sit on the sidelines and watch while Iran attains nuclear weapons capability.

According to the national security advisor, during this week's visit to Washington, Netanyahu "clarified that Israel reserves itself operational freedom, and several of the most senior figures in the Obama administration said 'of course.'"

Arad added the United States was aware of Israel's unique security needs and accepted them, and knew that it would not necessarily receive forewarning of an Israeli strike against Tehran 's nuclear facilities.

"There have been past instances in which Israel did not update the United States regarding military operations," he was quoted assaying.

Arad's words came just one day after a senior U.S. official said that Israel knew it needed to coordinate its strategy on Iran with other nations.

On Wednesday, Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta, who acknowledged that he had recently traveled to Israel to meet Netanyahu and warned him against a strike on Iran, told Global Viewpoint that he "felt assured" Israel would not break ranks with Washington's strategy.

"Yes, the Israelis are obviously concerned about Iran and focused on it," he said. "But (Netanyahu) understands that if Israel goes it alone, it will mean big trouble. He knows that for the sake of Israeli security, they have to work together with others."

The United States and Israel have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, but Iran has repeatedly denied the allegations, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

For years Israel has made no secret of its fears that Iran wishes to destroy the Jewish state. Israeli officials have repeatedly said that Israel will not rule out any option regarding the Iranian nuclear program.

The Middle East has been abuzz in anticipation of the peace plan US President Barack Obama is expected to unveil in Cairo next month. Some who can't wait to hear official details have extracted what they claim is a preview of it, reported in Israeli newspapers and the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

The so-called "Obama Plan" outlined by these reports is not radically different from those proposed by other Middle East interlocutors. But it boldly tackles some of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that other plans, such as the 1993 Oslo Accords, never resolved.

The solutions, which include a Palestinian state adjacent to Israel, would require both Israelis and Palestinians to cross some of their self-declared red lines.

Palestinians would have to give up the demand for their refugees' "right of return" to areas that are now part of Israel proper, and would instead have to settle for compensation or the option of moving to the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

The capital of the Palestinian state would be in East Jerusalem, which is currently under Israeli control. Most controversially, the plan includes a proposal that the Old City – with sites holy to the three major monotheistic religions – would become an international zone under the flag of the United Nations. Such an arrangement was proposed in the 1947 UN partition plan but was never implemented.

Mayor: Splitting Jerusalem is 'wishful thinking' The status of Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugee issue have in the past been major deal-breakers.

Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, says that on the issue of refugees, many Palestinians are prepared for realistic solutions.

"Most people know that they will not see the return of millions of Palestinians into Israel, or what's known as historic Palestine," he says. "Deep in our hearts we know it isn't possible, but people would like to see an acknowledgement of Israel's moral and historic responsibility."

But the idea of putting the holy sites of Jerusalem under international control is something Hamas, he says, as well as many other Muslims, will not accept.

"Palestinians would more likely accept this formula on the refugee than it would the internationalization of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is full of Islamic holy places over which Palestinians are not ready to make concessions," Dr. Abusada says.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, speaking Wednesday on a popular Israel Radio program, also indicated that any plan to split the holy city was a non-starter because Israel would not agree to divide its capital. On Thursday Israel celebrates Jerusalem Day, marking 42 years of what it considers to be reunification of Jerusalem – achieved during the 1967 Six-Day War – and Palestinians consider to be an occupation.

"Everyone who knows this city knows that it's not practical, it's not possible ... and it won't happen," Mr. Barkat said. "It's what's called in English, 'wishful thinking.'

"Jerusalem needs to stay united and whole – there's no other way."

Palestinians preoccupied with internal divides Palestinians have declined to comment officially on the reported details of the plan. The Palestinian political scene remained enmeshed in internal complications Wednesday after Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, inaugurated a new government cabinet headed by Salam Fayyad as prime minister. Hamas, as well as a mass of Fatah members, were unhappy with the decision. The Fatah parliamentary faction was meeting late Wednesday to discuss whether it might boycott the new government.

Mr. Obama is due to meet with Palestinian President Abbas, as well as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak next week – a prelude to his trip to the Middle East, during which he is scheduled to address the Muslim world from Cairo on June 4.

Leading up to the trip, moderate Arab states including Egypt and Jordan have been pushing the Saudi-led 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, under which Arab countries would normalize relations with Israel if Israel recognized a Palestinian state.

Obama, whose plan is reportedly similar to the Arab initiative, has repeatedly endorsed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – most recently in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on Monday. Mr. Netanyahu, who returned to Israel on Wednesday, has so far been unwilling to support such a formula, saying instead that he wanted Palestinians to govern themselves.

But upon landing at the Tel Aviv airport, he told reporters, "I said I was ready to immediately open peace talks with the Palestinians, by the way, with the Syrians as well, of course, without preconditions."

Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel was prepared to re-launch peace talks with the Palestinian Authority immediately.

Concluding his three-day trip in Washington, the prime minister said that he and U.S. President Barack Obama were "working together to reignite the peace process and are looking for ways to bring external sources from the Arab world into the process."

Netanyahu met Tuesday on Capital Hill with House and Senate leaders and a group of Jewish lawmakers, who were expected to question him on his refusal to endorse the cornerstone of international Mideast policy, the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

U.S. Senator John Kerry, a Democrat and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, said following talks with Netanyahu that he was encouraged by a number of things the Israeli leader said.

Kerry said he had stressed to Netanyahu the importance of Israel moving forward, especially in respect to the settlements issue. But Kerry said he also told the Israeli that the issue was not a one-way street and that Arab steps toward joining the regional road map to peace were also critical.

Netanyahu said he told Kerry and the other senators that the threat from Iran remains a strong part of any equation for negotiations. "We intend to pursue the peace track independent of what happens in Iran," Netanyahu said, adding that "in point of fact, it should be done in parallel."

Netanyahu said that Israel and its neighbors recognize the threat from Iran, and noted that "I was assured by Obama that the U.S. is committed to preventing that from happening.

U.S. House Speaker said following the talks that while the U.S. was committed to a Jewish state, a real solution to the conflict required Israel to live beside a sovereign Palestinian entity.

"There have been previous agreements that talk about a two-state solution, but I emphasize the word solution," she said. "It must be a solution that provides for a Democratic, Jewish State of Israel, living side-by-side with her Palestinian neighbors."

Pelosi added that the U.S. would continue to work for release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. "Every opportunity we get... we want to shine a bright light on the plight of Gilad Shalit," she said. "His father was just recently here and I promised that we would continue to work and pray for his release. We want his captors to know that he has many friends in the Congress of the United States and we are concerned about his freedom."

During his talks with the U.S. lawmakers, Netanyahu was to lay out his vision of Mideast peacemaking and make his case for strong action against Iran, a day after Obama said the U.S. would not have talks forever on stopping the Iranian nuclear program.

Following Obama's meeting with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, American officials said there was "more work to do" in bridging the gaps between Jerusalem and Washington over the Palestinian question.

Obama told Netanyahu the U.S. would soon present a new peace initiative to include Arab nations alongside Israel and the Palestinian Authority in peace negotiations. The two met at the White House on Monday, including one hour and 45 minutes with no one else present.

The official said that Israel and the U.S. see eye-to-eye on the need to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions, yet Netanyahu's hesitancy to support a two-state solution and to take steps in curbing Israel's settlement activity remain a bone of contention between the premier and Obama.

Contacts between Israeli and U.S. officials will continue in the coming weeks. Administration officials expect to hear from their Israeli counterparts what steps they are ready to take that will bring about a freeze in settlement construction and the removal of West Bank outposts.

The U.S. is eager to hear Israel's proposals before Obama's speech he is to deliver in Cairo on June 4. Washington attaches great importance to Israeli concessions on settlements as a confidence-building measure that will facilitate normalization of relations between Jerusalem and the Arab world.

During Monday's meeting at the White House, Obama pressed for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict, but failed to win a public commitment from Netanyahu on Palestinian statehood.

In their first White House talks, Obama also urged Netanyahu to freeze construction of settlements, but sought to reassure Israelis wary about his overtures to Iran, saying he would not wait indefinitely for diplomatic progress on curbing Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he was ready to launch peace talks with Syria “without preconditions”.

Netanyahu made the remarks at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, on his return from three days of talks in Washington.

“I said I was ready to immediately open peace talks with the Palestinians, by the way, with the Syrians as well, of course, without preconditions,” he said, according to the Haaretz newspaper.

Turkey brokered four rounds of indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel last year, but those were halted following Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which ended on 18 January.

Netanyahu has repeatedly voiced opposition to pulling out of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War. Syria wants the territory returned as part of any peace deal.

The Israeli leader also told reporters that he had made it clear during his talks with US President Barack Obama that any peace accord “must answer to Israel’s special security needs, reports Reuters.

“We also agreed on the need to expand the peace process to Arab states,” he said, adding that “Arab states should also make concessions from the start,” according to AFP.

On Iran, which Netanyahu has said poses the greatest threat to Israel, the Israeli premier said that Obama had accepted Israel’s “right to self-defense”, reports AFP.

Meanwhile, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, grieving over the death of his 12-year old grandson, canceled his trip to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington next week, the White House and Egyptian officials said on Wednesday.

Mubarak was not seen at the funeral of Mohamed Alaa Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Tuesday. The boy, the eldest of two children of Mubarak's elder son Alaa, died on Monday evening two days after the onset of what the presidency called a "health crisis."

Egypt's ambassador to the U.S., Sameh Shoukry, said he informed the White House that Mubarak would postpone his visit due to the tragic death of the president's grandson, according to Egypt's state-run news agency MENA. Shoukry said Egypt hopes to reschedule the visit to a date suitable for both presidents.

The Egyptian president was due to meet with Obama during the trip scheduled from May 25 to 27, to discuss ways to advance the Middle East peace process and in particular to update Washington on progress in intra-Palestinian talks being hosted in Cairo.

Obama is due to visit Egypt next month, fulfilling a promise he made during his presidential campaign to give a major address to Muslims from a Muslim capital during the first few months in office.

Egypt is a staunch regional ally of the United States, which has provided it with billions of dollars of military and other aid since Mubarak's late predecessor Anwar Sadat signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979, the first Arab state to do so.

Mubarak has spoken positively of Obama, saying he is different from his predecessor George W. Bush, whose Middle East policies created tension in Cairo-Washington relations.

In the past, Mubarak visited Washington regularly, but stopped doing so during Bush's time in the Oval Office.

Mubarak told Israel earlier this month it must work toward a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and stop building settlements or risk a militant resurgence and forfeit chances of improving Arab ties.

He made the comments in an interview with Israeli media after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.