JERUSALEM: Incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged yesterday to make every effort to achieve peace with Israel’s neighbors and the Arab world, but again made no mention of Palestinian aspirations to statehood.
“The government I am forming will do its utmost to achieve a just and lasting peace with all our neighbors and the Arab world in general,” Netanyahu said in a speech to Parliament, a day before his administration was to be sworn in. Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, has said he would negotiate with the Palestinians but wanted to focus on shoring up their economy rather than on territorial issues that have blocked progress in negotiations that are currently frozen.
He has shied away from a direct commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, the main goal of US-backed peace efforts. Palestinian officials have said peacemaking stands no chance without an explicit Israeli commitment to statehood.
In Parliament, Netanyahu listened without expression as outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged him to endorse clearly the creation of a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
