JERUSALEM -- Israel's prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former U.S. officials confirmed Sunday.
The rejection, first reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, is an apparent contradiction to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stated goal of involving regional Arab powers in resolving Israel's conflict with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu took part in a closed summit that Kerry organized in the southern Jordanian port city of Aqaba last February and included Jordan's King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
According to two officials in former President Barack Obama's administration, Kerry proposed regional recognition of Israel as a Jewish state at that summit -- a key Netanyahu demand -- alongside a renewal of peace talks with the Palestinians with the support of the Arab countries.
Netanyahu rejected the offer, which would have required a significant pullout from occupied land, saying he would not be able to garner enough support for it in his hard-line coalition government.
The initiative also appeared to be the basis of short-lived talks with opposition leader Isaac Herzog to join the government, a plan that quickly unraveled when Netanyahu chose to bring in nationalist leader Avigdor Lieberman instead and appoint him defense minister.
Herzog tweeted Sunday that "history will definitely judge the magnitude of the opportunity as well as the magnitude of the missed opportunity."
Two former top aides to Kerry confirmed that the closed meeting took place Feb. 21, 2016. According to the officials, Kerry tried to sweeten the 15-year-old "Arab Peace Initiative," a Saudi-led plan that offered Israel peace with dozens of Arab and Muslim nations in return for a pullout from territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war to make way for an independent Palestine.
Among the proposed changes were Arab recognition of Israel as the Jewish state, recognition of Jerusalem as a shared capital for Israelis and Palestinians, and softened language on the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees to lost properties in what is now Israel, the former officials said.
One of the officials said the main purpose of the meeting was to start a regional peace process that Netanyahu said he wanted. However, he said it was not clear if the Arab states would have gone along with it either.
The officials said opposition inside Netanyahu's government, which is dominated by nationalists opposed to Palestinian independence, presented a formidable obstacle. But he said the Arab partners also showed varying degrees of enthusiasm, with the Palestinians most concerned about concessions forced on them.
In Cairo, el-Sissi's office issued a statement late Sunday that appeared to confirm that the meeting took place. It said Egypt had been working toward a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "It is in this framework that Egypt has sought to bring closer the positions of the relevant parties and supported any meetings or initiatives aimed at discussing Practical ideas that would revive the peace process," said the statement.
Netanyahu himself did not address the newspaper report in his weekly Cabinet meeting and his office did not comment. Instead, the prime minister focused on last week's visit to Washington to meet President Donald Trump.
At that meeting, both Trump and Netanyahu talked of searching for new ways forward with the Palestinians and raised the possibility of involving the broader Arab world in a new peace process.
Netanyahu called the meeting "historic" and one that strengthened the two countries' longtime alliance. He said at the end of the meeting, Trump shook his hand and told him it was a "new day" in Israeli-American relations.
After eight years of strained ties with Obama, Netanyahu seems to be relishing Trump's presidency. Trump has broken from his predecessor in adopting friendlier positions to the Israeli government regarding a tough line on Iran, a vaguer stance on Palestinian statehood and a more lenient approach to West Bank settlements.
Netanyahu said the two leaders see "eye to eye" on Iran and other issues. "There is a new day and it is a good day," he said.
Lieberman said that for him a Palestinian state remains the preferred outcome -- and it should come through the type of regional structure Netanyahu reportedly rejected.
"My vision, it's the endgame no doubt, two-state solution. I believe that it's necessary for us to keep the Jewish state," he said at the Munich Security Conference. "The Palestinians don't have capacity to sign a lone final status agreement with Israel. It's possible only as a part of an all-regional solution, not an incremental process but simultaneously."
A Section on 02/20/2017