In an interview with Channel 1 on Friday, Netanyahu refrained from commenting directly on the possibility that his government might extend the moratorium on new construction in the settlements beyond its end date of September 26.
He reference the November decision to implement the moratorium for only 10 months and said: "We made a decision; it has not changed".
"We made the decision [to implement the moratorium] to help facilitate the start of direct talks with the Palestinians, but they refused",€ he continued.
"Anyone who weighs the words and deeds of this government will see that it is one that wants peace, We walked towards peace and they distanced themselves from it".
"If they can't sit with us, how can we achieve peace? It is impossible to have peace without speaking directly with the Palestinians". he said. He noted that he sits only 10 minutes away from Abbas’s Ramallah office, and yet he and Abbas do not speak directly with each other.
Addressing Abbas, he said: "€œI will go to Ramallah. You should come to Jerusalem. We must resume the negotiations so we can finish them".
Netanyahu also sought in the interview to downplay accounts of increased pressure from Obama regarding Israel’s stance towards the Palestinians and talk of poor relations between the White House and the current Israeli government. He emphasized that Israel and the US continue to share a strong connection despite the perceived differences with the Obama administration.
The prime minister admitted that while Obama administration's approach towards Israel may be different from that of past US administrations, the US and Israel still share the same goals of preventing a nuclear Iran as well as achieving peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
"There is a fundamental connection in basic interests between the US and Israel in two areas. One, to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. And two, to achieve an immediate peace between the Palestinians and Israel".
Understanding from Netanyahu's words is, that if the PA leadership agrees to start Direct talks or if Obama commits himself to President Bush's letter to PM Sharon to recognize the Large Settlement Blocs as part of Israel in any Peace settlement, that would make it easier for Netanyahu to pass a extension of the Freeze to the more smaller settlements, while resuming construction in the Large Blocs, and not lose his coalition partners or his base support.
