Report: Israel to offer 9-month freeze of settlement building

Benjamin Netanyahu has offered a nine-month moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank, an Israeli government source told the newspaper ‘Haaretz’. The United States had asked Israel to order a one-year moratorium on the building of settlements in the West Bank to aid the peace process.
The new initiative was reportedly put forward during Wednesday's meeting in London between the Israeli prime minister and the US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell. The Obama administration has reportedly backed down on its demand that the settlement freeze also apply to East Jerusalem.

The moratorium would not apply to around 2,500 housing units already under construction in the West Bank, and objects of public infrastructure, such as kindergartens and schools, which are necessary to maintain "normal life" in the settlements. Israel sees the moratorium as "a confidence-building measure that must be matched by reciprocal steps from the Palestinian Authority and other Arab states," ‘Haaretz’ writes. If it fails, Israel wants the US to guarantee that it will not oppose renewed construction.

The Israeli side also hinted that Netanyahu could meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas next month at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and on Wednesday Palestinian officials in the West Bank told AP that for the first time that such a meeting was likely. The officials said that while Abbas was prepared to talk to Netanyahu, he would not officially reopen negotiations until Israel halts its settlement activities.