Netanyahu hints at flexibility on Jerusalem

NEW YORK — It was an otherwise unremarkable stump speech for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before a friendly audience of some 300 Jews in New York on July 7.

But then, in an off-the-cuff remark to a question on Jerusalem from the audience, Netanyahu dropped a hint that his government’s insistence on Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem might not be ironclad.

“Everybody knows that there are Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem that under any peace plan will remain where they are,” Netanyahu said in response to the question read by the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein.

The implication of Netanyahu’s remark — that other neighborhoods of Jerusalem may not remain “where they are,” becoming part of an eventual Palestinian state — was the first hint that the Israeli leader may be flexible on the subject of Jerusalem. Until now, Netanyahu has insisted that Jerusalem is not up for negotiation.

While the prime minister surely did not intend the gathering under the aegis of the Presidents Conference to serve as his forum for opening up negotiations over Jerusalem, the impromptu remark before an audience of prominent New York Jews and a handful of elected officials cast a slim ray of light on what Netanyahu thinks might be the Israeli capital’s ultimate fate.

He reiterated the point in an interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Are you willing to put East Jerusalem as a possible capital of the Palestinian state on the table?” Wallace asked, according to a transcript provided by Fox News.

Netanyahu responded, “Well, we have differences of views with the Palestinians. We want a united city. They have their own views. We can — this is one of the issues that will have to be negotiated. But I think the main point is to get on with it.”

The remarks on Jerusalem were significant because Netanyahu’s true intentions regarding the peace process remain largely opaque.

Netanyahu was a latecomer to the two-state position—endorsing the idea of an eventual Palestinian state only a year ago, after much prodding by the U.S. Plus, the governing coalition he has assembled is comprised largely of right-wing parties that do not believe in the current Palestinian Authority as a partner for negotiations.

Earlier in the week following Netanyahu’s Oval Office meeting, President Obama publicly declared he thinks the Israeli leader is genuinely committed to seeking a twostate solution.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu wants peace. I think he’s willing to take risks for peace,” Obama told reporters. “And during our conversation, he once again re- affirmed his willingness to engage in serious negotiations with the Palestinians.”

Privately, however, some U.S. administration officials have expressed doubts about Netanyahu’s ability to make good on that vision. The Palestinian Authority leadership also claim Netanyahu is merely paying lip service to the peace process.

Netanyahu insists he is serious about peace talks, and that it is the Palestinians who are playing games. “You either put up excuses or you lead,” the Israeli leader said in his New York speech. “I want to enter direct talks with the Palestinian leadership now,”

“I think we can defy the skeptics,” he said, recalling the doubters that abounded when Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin began talking to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in the lead-up to the Camp David Accords, and when Richard Nixon visited China. “This is a challenge I’m up to.”