In a shift, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said tonight that his government was ready to restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians without delay or preconditions.
Speaking to the AIPAC annual gala dinner via sattelite, Netanyahu called for a “fresh approach” — a three track peace process comprised of political, security, and economic elements.
While we’ll know more once the details get fleshed out, at first blush, the approach seems different than the one Netanyahu called for during the campaign, when he expressed much more skepticism about talks with a divided Palestinian leadership.
This could be a good will move by Netanyahu to get the Obama administration to become more serious about resolving the Iranian nuclear crisis.
“Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.
He said of the Iranian nuclear threat that this was a rare time in which Arabs and Jews see “a common danger,” noting that the Arabs supported Germany during World War II and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.