JERUSALEM - Responding to an offer by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to extend a freeze on building in West Bank settlements if Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, a top Palestinian official said Wednesday that such recognition could be granted to Israel within its 1967 borders, without the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, The Washington Post reports.
In media interviews, Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, countered Netanyahu's offer in another volley of the verbal ping-pong that has taken the place of direct negotiations.
The talks that began last month ran aground after an Israeli moratorium on new construction in West Bank settlements expired Sept. 26 and Palestinians said they would not resume negotiations unless settlement building stopped.
Netanyahu's offer, made in a speech to the Israeli parliament Tuesday, was instantly dismissed by the Palestinians.
In an interview with Israel Radio on Wednesday, Abed Rabbo made a barbed offer of his own. He suggested that the Israelis present the Palestinians with "a map of the state of Israel along the 1967 borders, so that we can recognize it in the way it likes."
"We will recognize it according to what Israel declares, on condition that it will be along the 1967 borders," he said.
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