The Israeli prime minister said Sunday he believes Israel will retain parts of the West Bank forever. Benjamin Netanyahu made the comments, shortly after meeting the visiting US Mideast envoy George Mitchell. Mitchell has been pressing Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank. At a tree-planting ceremony at settlement outside of Occupied Jerusalem, Netanyahu told the audience “this place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel forever.” The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank for a future independent state and say settlements undermine this goal. On the other hand, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell Sunday shuttled between Occupied Jerusalem and Amman in his second attempt this week to persuade Israeli and Palestinian leaders to relaunch peace talks. Mitchell met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Occupied Jerusalem before heading to Amman for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on a regional tour aimed at reviving talks suspended during last winter's Gaza war. Netanyahu said after the meeting that Mitchell had presented “new ideas” about how to relaunch the peace process, without providing further details. “I expressed my hope that these new ideas will lead to the renewal of the peace process if the Palestinians themselves show similar interest,” he added. The United States has been trying for months to convince both sides to return to the negotiating table, but the Palestinians have refused to do so unless Israel halts all settlement growth in the West Bank and occupied east Jerusalem, territories it occupied in 1967. Washington initially backed that demand but has more recently pressed both sides to immediately return to the talks and praised a limited 10-month settlement slowdown enacted by Netanyahu in November. The Palestinians have rejected the moratorium on building starts because it excludes mostly Arab east Jerusalem - which they demand as their capital - as well as public buildings and projects already under way. Israel has meanwhile insisted it will not give any more ground and blamed the Palestinians for the impasse. Israel's Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom Sunday said it was “time to say clearly and unequivocally that there will be no further concessions from Israel for the launching of negotiations.” “The method of the Palestinians is to refuse to resume negotiations to force the United States to exert pressure on Israel,” he told public radio. “The ball is in the Palestinian court,” he added.
