Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday to pursue peace talks with the Palestinians as he prepared to present his new government to parliament next week. “Peace... is a common and enduring goal for all Israelis and Israeli governments, mine included. This means I will negotiate with the Palestinian Authority for peace,” the hawkish Netanyahu told a Jerusalem conference. Washington has warned that peacemaking would not be any easier under Netanyahu – who will head a right-leaning government and opposes the creation of a Palestinian state. “I think that the Palestinians should understand that they have in our government a partner for peace, for security, for the rapid development of the Palestinian economy,” he said. Netanyahu has succeeded in pulling together a government six weeks after Israel's election, following the agreement Tuesday by the center-left Labor party to join his coalition. “I intend to present the Knesset with the national unity government next week,” he said at meeting of his Likud party's parliamentary faction. A senior Likud official said the swearing-in should take place on Monday or Tuesday. His right-wing Likud was due to sign one more coalition agreement with the three-member far-right Jewish Home on Wednesday, a senior MP said, giving him a five-member coalition of 69 MPs in the 120-member Knesset or parliament. The Likud leader, who was premier in 1996-1999, opposes the creation of a Palestinian state for the moment, saying economic conditions in the occupied West Bank must first be improved. “Building peace needs actions and not words,” senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said. “Any Israeli government that freezes settlement construction and accepts a settlement based on a two-state solution and to negotiate on all final status issues, including Jerusalem, will be considered a partner for peace,” he said, listing issues opposed by several members of Netanyahu's cabinet. US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that peace efforts with a Netanyahu-led government were not any “easier” but that they were “just as necessary.” Obama was asked about prospects for peace with a Netanyahu cabinet, whose chosen foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has been dubbed a racist by critics because of repeated diatribes against Israeli Arabs. Labor voted to join Netanyahu's cabinet despite the opposition of many in the veteran party that launched the Oslo peace talks in the early 1990s. Netanyahu's coalition comprises 27 MPs from Likud, 15 from Lieberman's ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu, 11 from ultra-Orthodox Shas, 13 from Labor and three from Jewish Home. Agreement reveals discord In their coalition agreement, Netanyahu and Labor leader Ehud Barak remained vague on the issue, saying the cabinet will work “to reach a comprehensive regional peace agreement” and respect previous international agreements Israel has signed. They did not mention the word Palestinians or address the issue of a Palestinian state. And discord between the partners emerged Wednesday, with Labor MPs saying peace talks will continue while Likud MPs said the party won't accept the creation of a Palestinian state.
