Israel has reportedly rejected a series of new US incentives to extend briefly a settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank. According to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Obama administration offered to back Israel’s insistence on maintaining a long-term military presence along the eastern border of a future Palestinian state. The US also offered Israel military equipment and a pledge to veto UN resolutions on Arab-Israeli peace for at least a year. But according to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down the offer because he would have had to extend the partial settlement freeze for another two months. A European diplomat who discussed the issue with administration officials said he was told that the US believes Netanyahu is “humiliating” Obama. The Palestinian Authority meanwhile has said it will delay a decision on whether to walk away from the talks because of Israel’s ongoing settlement expansion until an Arab League meeting next week. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Palestinians remain committed to a peace deal.

Saeb Erekat: “We have always said our position. We’re not against direct negotiations. On the contrary, we want to see to it that we reach an endgame, end of conflict, a permanent status solution, establish the two-state solution, a state of Palestine on the 1967 borders, to live side by side in peace and security with the state of Israel.”