Israel plans West Bank pullout

Forces troops from the West Bank, as well as other measures meant to avert the “diplomatic tsunami” that will likely follow a United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state in September, Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported yesterday.
The extent of the withdrawal is still unclear, and Netanyahu is currently not mulling the evacuation of settlements, according to the report.
In a meeting with EU envoys in Jerusalem on Monday, Netanyahu was asked whether he still intends to deliver a speech, originally slated for May before the US Congress, in which he would present a new diplomatic initiative for resuming negotiations with the Palestinians, and what it would include.
“I have not decided when and what,” Netanyahu said.
“But two questions should be asked: First, is the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians even possible? The second question is what actions can be taken in the absence of negotiations,” he said.
Netanyahu and his ministers are said to be pessimistic regarding the chances of reigniting peace negotiations, which rea-ched an impasse last September following Israel’s refusal to extend a self-imposed moratorium on West Bank settlement construction.
The US President Barack Obama’s administration, for its part, had since given up on efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.
A pullout of Israeli forces from the West Bank is one of a few measures Netanyahu is weighing in a bid to garner the support of the US, the EU and other Western countries against the recognition of a Palestinian state by the UN General Assembly.
In recent months, at least a dozen Latin American countries have announced their recognition of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. – Xinhua