Israeli officials on Friday rejected Arab complaints that they were not committed to a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians and said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had responded positively to the Arab League initiative as a basis for negotiations.
Mark Regev, the spokesman for Mr. Olmert, was responding to recent Arab statements, published in The New York Times, warning Israel that unless it accepted the 2002 proposal — for full recognition of Israel in return for complete withdrawal to the 1967 boundaries — the deal would be withdrawn.
Israel, he said, was engaged in serious negotiations with the Palestinians in order to settle the conflict on the basis of two independent and sovereign states.
“Israel has responded positively to the Arab League initiative,” Mr. Regev said. “We’ve praised the initiative, and we said we were willing to have negotiations with the Arab world on its basis, and the prime minister has praised it.”
Talks with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and negotiators go on “almost daily,” Mr. Regev said.
Another Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for diplomatic reasons, played down the comments made by Muhammad Sobeih, the assistant secretary general of the Arab League in charge of the Palestinian issue.
The Israeli official said Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, and his staff were generally more “critical and negative than Arab League foreign ministers.” He described Mr. Moussa and his staff as “more Nasserite” — implying an older form of Arab nationalism and rejection of Israel — and said European interlocutors had told the Israelis, “Don’t expect much from Amr Moussa.”
Mr. Sobeih said the Arab leaders were planning to reiterate support for their initiative at an Arab League meeting next month in Syria. But, he said, they will couple that support with “a message to Israel emphasizing the need to respond to the initiative; otherwise, Arab states will reassess the previous stage of peace.”
Mr. Sobeih was reflecting Arab unhappiness with the pace of the talks, a view shared by Mr. Abbas and his appointed prime minister, Salam Fayyad. They say they believe that Israel is in no hurry to finish the negotiations.
Israel, many Arabs and Palestinians believe, is insincere; the Palestinians, many Israelis believe, are not ready to make the compromises necessary for a real peace.
Also on Friday, about 10,000 Israelis gathered in the southern town of Sderot, a target of Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza, to show their solidarity with the citizens there by doing their weekend shopping in the town.
In Gaza, about 200 Palestinians protested against Danish newspapers that reprinted a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.
Also in Gaza, a Hamas spokesman praised the European Union for passing a nonbinding resolution on Thursday urging Israel not to inflict “collective punishment” on Gazan civilians because of the rockets.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has asked to meet Mr. Olmert in part to discuss Gaza when they cross paths in Japan next week, Israeli and American officials said.
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