JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu is likely to offer the Palestinians a provisional state within temporary borders, the country's defense minister said in an interview published Tuesday, spelling out for the first time the "phased approach" that other officials have said the Israeli leader was considering.
Mindful that the Palestinians repeatedly have rejected provisional statehood, Ehud Barak told The Wall Street Journal that Israel or the U.S. would have to assure the Palestinians that a full-fledged agreement on permanent statehood was in the offing.
Barak also told the newspaper that Israel might seek an additional $20 billion in U.S. military aid to help it deal with potential threats arising from the turmoil in the Arab world.
While characterizing the popular upheavals in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and the Gulf as "a historic earthquake" and "quite inspired," Barak said Israel was worried that its top foes, Iran and Syria, "might be the last to feel the heat" of the revolts and that Egypt's new leaders might, under public pressure, back away from its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
"The issue of qualitative military aid for Israel becomes more essential for us, and I believe also more essential for you," the newspaper quoted Barak as saying. "A strong, responsible Israel can become a stabilizer in such a turbulent region."
Israel already receives $3 billion in military aid a year from the U.S.
Without making a "daring" peace offer, however, Israel cannot seek additional aid, Barak was quoted as saying.
To that end, Netanyahu is likely to offer the Palestinians a state with temporary borders, and only afterward, would the two sides would resolve key issues of the conflict, such as competing claims to Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
No details of the plan were given.
A Netanyahu spokesman, Mark Regev, said Barak's remark "can stand on its own." The prime minister is said to be planning a speech — possibly to be delivered in Washington — in which he will outline his plans.
The Palestinians flatly reject the idea of an interim accord as a way out of the current negotiations deadlock. Not only would they receive less territory than they demand, but Israel would also retain military control of the area.
They are also afraid that it they agree to temporary borders, then they will never win a full-fledged, independent state.