Netanyahu: Talks could bring peace in 2011

NEW YORK, July 9 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says he plans to "confound the critics and the skeptics" and make peace with the Palestinians, possibly within a year.

Netanyahu told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that despite "warranted" skepticism, given the dismal record of Mideast peace talks, his timetable could indeed be reached if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sits down with him.

Abbas was reported Wednesday in the official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida as supporting negotiations with Israel as the only workable option for the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But the newspaper also quoted Abbas as saying: "If you (Arab states) want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor. But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they don't have the ability to do it."

The Palestinians agreed in May to indirect talks with Israel through U.S. envoy George Mitchell. But they demanded a halt to all Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem before direct talks begin.

Netanyahu said on CNN's "Larry King Live" Wednesday he was willing to negotiate the future of West Bank settlements "right away" if Abbas dropped his settlement-freeze demand.

In his Council on Foreign Relations talk Thursday, Netanyahu said he thought the Israelis and Palestinians "should seize the moment, and it is a challenging and important moment, when we have the ability to achieve peace," Haaretz reported.

And he repeated his vision of "two states for two peoples in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state of Israel."