Israel said Tuesday it accepts US President Barack Obama's guidelines for peace, in a final bid to renew negotiations and prevent a United Nations General Assembly vote on Palestinian statehood in September, dpa reported.
In a policy speech and at a meeting of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington in late May, Obama stated explicitly that "the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps."
Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan, and Gaza from Egypt, in the Six-Day War of 1967.
"Israel would not reject language on borders that would be similar to Obama's speech at AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee,)" a senior Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday.
"In parallel of course, there would be language that the goal of the negotiations is two states for two peoples, with a Jewish state living side by side with a Palestinian state," he told the German Press Agency dpa.
The official said Israel was willing to accept a package containing "difficult elements" for it, as part of the ongoing efforts to restart the peace process.
"The assumption is that if we succeed, the Palestinian will withdraw their proposals for unilateral statehood in September at the United Nations," he said.
"We've been working with the Americans very closely to find a formula that would facilitate the return to talks."
Israel was however "sceptical" about the Palestinians' wish to retun to talks, he said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, it seemed, had taken a "strategic decision to go to the United Nations," because that was a "painless policy" that required "no concessions," he said.
Obama's May policy speech drew an immediate reaction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who demanded a reaffirmation of previous US commitments that Israel would not have to withdraw to the 1967 lines.
The nationalist Israeli leader called those lines "indefensible" and said they leave large Israeli population centres in the West Bank beyond them.
Days later, Obama clarified his remarks in a speech to AIPAC members.
He said his remarks about the "1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps" expressed what had long been acknowledged privately and by definition, it meant the parties would have to negotiate a border different from that which existed on the eve of the 1967 war, taking into account "new demographic realities".
Netanyahu expressed his "appreciation" for the clarification, but media reports described his May visit to Washington as tense.
At the time, he did not openly accept Obama's formula of negotiations based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps.
"Israel is ready for the immediate resumption of peace talks, but once again it appears the Palestinians for their own reasons have chosen the path of the United Nations General Assembly" which would only make negotiations "more difficult," the Israeli official said Tuesday.