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Ex-generals launch ‘Israeli Peace Initiative’

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A group of prominent Israelis, including former heads of the military and security agencies and prominent businessmen and academics, have drafted a new peace proposal which responds to the Arab Peace Initiative. The ‘Israeli Peace Initiative’ includes parameters for peace with the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon and a proposed wider normalisation and economic cooperation initiative with the rest of the Arab world. The plan would see Israel agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza, with its capital in east Jerusalem. Some border adjustments would take place to allow Israel to retain key settlements.

Former Shin Bet chief Yakov Peri said in an interview with the BBC that the plan was intended to push the government of Israel to break the current deadlock in the diplomatic process between Israelis and Palestinians. A spokesman for the Israeli government, Ophir Gendleman, responded positively to the new initiative and said it reflects ‘the true yearning of the Israeli people for peace.” He added that “like the Israeli government’s policy,” the initiative was “based upon the need to go back to direct negotiations between the two sides.”

US-brokered talks between Israel and the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority collapsed last September because of Palestinian insistence that Israel agree to a continued complete freeze on building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The full initiative can be read on the New York Times’ website.