Israel's Likud resists "two-state" commitment

By Alastair Macdonald

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - On the eve of a first visit by new U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an ally of Benjamin Netanyahu made clear on Sunday the incoming prime minister would not commit Israel to Washington's goal of a Palestinian state. Silvan Shalom, a senior figure in the right-wing Likud party and foreign minister until 2006, said that Netanyahu would engage in a dialogue with the Palestinians and expected to work closely with the Obama administration in the United States.

But he said the Likud leader would not pre-judge the outcome of peace negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by agreeing in advance, as the outgoing government and its predecessors did, to the two-state solution advocated by the international powers since the Oslo accords of 1993. "We need the next government to come with an approach that will enable us and the Palestinians ... to put every idea on the table," Shalom told Reuters in an interview.

"But I don't see a way now to announce in advance that the final outcome will be an independent Palestinian state. That's something that should be discussed."

He acknowledged that Netanyahu's reluctance to endorse the outgoing, centrist-led cabinet's commitment to the 15-month-old, U.S.-sponsored Annapolis peace process was bound up with efforts to forge a new ruling coalition following last month's election.

Likud won one seat fewer than the centrist Kadima party of outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni but neither secured even a quarter of parliament and the strength of small, right-wing and religious parties persuaded the president to give Netanyahu, rather than Livni, the first chance to form a new government.

Livni, chief negotiator with the Palestinians, has rejected Netanyahu's offer of joining a national unity government, saying she could not accept his stance on Palestinian statehood.

Netanyahu has been careful not to rule out a Palestinian state but he and aides have said he wants to establish limits to its sovereignty before agreeing to such an outcome, and focus negotiations on economic rather than territorial issues.

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