MR Benjamin Netanyahu, who is set next week to become the first Israeli prime minister to visit Ireland, told The Irish Times yesterday he intends to invite the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, to pay a reciprocal visit to Israel.
At a briefing ahead of his European trip - which will take him to Lisbon, Madrid and then to Dublin on Wednesday - Mr Netanyahu said he had never been to Ireland and would use the opportunity to "strengthen ties between Israel and Ireland".
Asked if there was anything Israel could learn from, or teach, Ireland about conflict resolution and negotiating competing claims to territorial control, the Prime Minister diplomatically ducked the question, replying mildly that he was "not coming to teach anyone" but rather to "glean lessons".
Although Israeli Irish trade has been growing steadily for several years, diplomatic relations have intensified only relatively recently. The first Irish ambassador to Israel was appointed only near the end of the last Labour government's term in Israel.
As current President of the EU, however, Ireland has become involved in Middle East peace efforts in an unprecedented manner, and Mr Netanyahu stressed that he welcomed the opportunity - to meet Irish and other European political leaders in person, to assure them of his government's commitment to peace and pursuit of peace".
Mr Netanyahu's last trip to Europe, in late September, had to be cut embarrassingly short. He was forced to return home after his decision to open a new entrance in an archaeological tunnel in Jerusalem's Old City sparked furious gun battles in the West Bank and Gaza, in which more than 60 Palestinians and 15 Israelis died.
In the wake of that fighting, Israel and the Palestinians began continuous negotiations aimed at ensuring a speedy Israeli army withdrawal from most of Hebron. Two months on, the sides are still at loggerheads.
Mr Netanyahu charged yesterday that the Palestinians had taken "a strategic decision not to expedite an agreement."
The Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, responded that Israeli inflexibility was holding up the deal.
With officials on both sides predicting further conflict if the deal is not done soon, Mr Arafat is again urging the US and Russia to arbitrate a solution.
The fighting, intermittent Israeli closure orders, and the current stalemate in negotiations have so devastated the Palestinian economy that locals in Bethlehem, desperate to attract tourists ahead of Christmas, are now energetically spreading word of "a miracle" at the Basilica of the Nativity, above Jesus's reputed birthplace: a 12th century painting of Jesus on a marble column has begun weeping.