NETANYA, Israel, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh advocated Israel negotiate a final settlement with the Palestinians.
Final settlement talks should include the most difficult outstanding issues such as borders, Jerusalem's future, the settlements, and Palestinian refugees claim of a right of return.
The internationally devised roadmap for peace left those issues for the third, final stage in the peace process. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been seeking to go straight the final settlement issues. The argument for that is that if the parties agree on those issues it would be easier to get through the other topics.
Addressing a conference at the Netanya College, Thursday, Sneh said: "The time is ripe for Israeli Palestinian negotiations over a final settlement agreement."
"Two years are enough to conclude a detailed agreement," he predicted. Six months should be devoted to negotiating the principles and the rest to discuss the details, he added.
"I am sure that in the government of Israel there is a majority for doing it," he said.
The prime minister's media adviser, Miri Eisin, told United Press International, "That's not government policy." Israel wants to follow the "sequencing in the roadmap" and the parties haven't yet reached stage one, she said.
Sneh told diplomats, representatives of the United Nations, European Union and other international organizations at the conference that Israel does not need foreign mediators in its negotiations with the Arabs. "There is no need for mediators ...as long as there is a political will on both sides (to reach an agreement). If there is no political will on both sides, the best mediator in the world won't help."
However, it could use facilitators and supporters such as the European Union monitors and the Rafah crossing.
According to U.S. Ambassador Richard Jones, economic and military assistance could overcome perceptions of risks taken in agreements.
