WASHINGTON: Israel is prepared to make “painful compromises” for peace with the Palestinians, including the handover of land they seek for a state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the US Congress Tuesday. Palestinians swiftly dismissed the Israeli leader's terms for a deal as placing more obstacles in diplomacy's way, casting doubt as to whether frozen peace talks would resume anytime soon. Netanyahu received frequent standing ovations in addressing the joint meeting of Congress, a bastion of support for Israel. The speech came after a testy exchange last week with President Barack Obama over the contours of a future Palestine and Netanyahu used it to reiterate his expectations ahead of any talks. They included Palestinian recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people and the scrapping of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' unity accord with Hamas. “Tear up your pact with Hamas. Sit down and negotiate. Make peace with the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said. “I am willing to make painful compromises to achieve this historical peace. As the leader of Israel, it is my responsibility,” the right-wing leader said, echoing a pledge in a speech to Israel's parliament on May 15. “Now this is not easy for me. It's not easy because I recognize that in a genuine peace we will be required to give up parts of the ancestral Jewish homeland,” he said, referring to the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu explicitly suggested for the first time that Israel would cede some Jewish settlements in the West Bank, although others would be annexed under any future agreement. “In any peace agreement that ends the conflict, some settlements will end up beyond Israel's borders. The precise delineation of those borders must be negotiated,” Netanyahu said. Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas, said Netanyahu's vision for ending the conflict put “more obstacles” in front of the Middle East peace process. “What came in Netanyahu's speech will not lead to peace,” Rdainah said in the West Bank city of Ramallah, rejecting Netanyahu's call to hold onto swathes of West Bank land including East Jerusalem, where Palestinians want their capital. Hani Masry, a Palestinian analyst said Netanyahu “wants the Palestinians to give up everything and get a state of leftovers.”
