With Palestinian statehood bid looming, Israel offers concession to restart talks

“Netanyahu’s office said that he’s prepared to discuss such a formula and not accept it, and there is a big difference between the two,” he said.

Agence France-Presse reports that Netanyahu acknowledged in an Israeli parliament committee meeting Monday that Israel had no ability to block the symbolic vote at the UN. But the concessions could ensure US goodwill and therefore a veto of Palestinian UN membership in the Security Council.

Meanwhile, Fatah official Nabil Shaath said Tuesday that a bid for UN membership would make negotiations with Israel more likely and more successful by putting the two on more equal footing at the negotiating table, Maan News Agency reports. Israeli attempts to head off the UN bid are futile because the Palestinian leadership is committed to the plan, Mr. Shaath said.

Tony Karon charges in Time that, because the proposed deal accepts the 1967 borders as just the starting point for talks rather than endorsing them as formal borders, little has actually changed about Netanyahu's position. There's also no mention of the settlement freeze demanded by the Palestinians, and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state remains a nonstarter for Palestinians.

So the new Israeli position, while tweaked to appear to be more in line with what the Obama Administration has been asking, may not be all that new, after all. Nor is it one that makes it any easier for Abbas to accept, unless he's essentially looking for an off-ramp from a confrontational diplomatic strategy that threatens his ties with Washington -- which may well be the case.

If not, and the UN vote goes ahead, Netanyahu's latest position will simply have been an attempt to shift the blame for intransigence back onto the Palestinians. Netanyahu and Abbas, it should be noted, have never really negotiated with one another; instead, both "negotiate," or jockey for position, with the US and the wider international community. And Netanyahu's new willingness to talk about borders, but only on his terms and if the Palestinians withdraw their UN bid, is simply his latest move in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian battle for international public opinion.

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