Israel is prepared to make “painful compromises” for peace with the Palestinians, including the handover of land they seek for a state, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the US Congress yesterday.
Addressing a joint meeting of Congress, a bastion of support for Israel, after a testy exchange last week with President Barack Obama over the contours of a future Palestine, Mr Netanyahu reiterated his terms for peace.
These included Palestinian recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people and the scrapping of Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s unity accord with the Islamist movement Hamas.
“Tear up your pact with Hamas. Sit down and negotiate. Make peace with the Jewish state,” he said.
“I am willing to make painful compromises to achieve this historical peace. As the leader of Israel, it is my responsibility,” he added, echoing a pledge he made in a speech to Israel’s parliament on May 15th.
“Now this is not easy for me. It’s not easy, because I recognise that in a genuine peace we will be required to give up parts of the ancestral Jewish homeland,” he said, referring to the occupied West Bank.
Commenting on Mr Netanyahu’s Washington address, a spokesman for Mr Abbas said the Israeli leader’s vision for ending conflict with Palestinians put “more obstacles” in front of the Middle East peace process.
“What came in Netanyahu’s speech will not lead to peace,” said the spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah.