Netanyahu Lobbies Israeli Cabinet on U.S. Peace Talk Incentives

At LAT:

Under pressure from the Obama administration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began nudging his Cabinet on Sunday toward accepting a multibillion-dollar package of U.S. incentives designed to restart stalled peace talks with Palestinians.

But Netanyahu immediately faced a flood of opposition from conservative politicians and settler groups, who vowed to block the American proposal because it would reimpose building restrictions on West Bank settlements for three months.

After a hotly contested Cabinet meeting, Moshe Yaalon, Israel's vice prime minister, rejected the U.S. offer as a "honey trap" that "will lead us down a slippery slope and into another crisis with the American administration after three months, or perhaps even sooner."

Netanyahu told Cabinet ministers that the terms of the U.S. offer are still being negotiated by the two countries and he pledged to bring it for a vote before the security Cabinet when the details are finalized.

The package, discussed last week between Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during talks in New York, includes 20 stealth fighter jets worth $3 billion and a promise to veto anti-Israel proposals raised in the U.N. Security Council during the next year, including a potential Palestinian bid to seek international support for a unilateral declaration of statehood.

In return, Israel would renew its partial West Bank construction moratorium for 90 days, including units that broke ground after the previous freeze expired in September. Peace Now, an anti-settlement group that tracks construction, said settlers have resumed construction on 1,650 units over the past six weeks.