Around the World: Israel

Netanyahu talks peace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday called on the Palestinians to restart peace talks. "I hope very much that the Palestinians will come to their senses and enter the peace process," Netanyahu said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting. "The peace process is an Israeli interest as much as it is a Palestinian one."

He spoke a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed his "unprecedented" position on settlements, saying that negotiations should resume despite the Palestinians' insistence that Israel freeze all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.