'Netanyahu's peace intentions may surprise Abbas'

Labor Party minister Isaac Herzog said Wednesday that he had chosen to join Benjamin Netanyahu's predominantly right-wing government after he became convinced during a private conversation with the prime minister that Netanyahu had a sincere desire to achieve peace with the Palestinians.

Herzog called on Palestinian leadership to put the prime minister to the test, saying that, "if President [Mahmoud] Abbas would sit with Prime Minister Netanyahu in a closed room, he may be surprised."

Herzog's comments came during a conference by the Palestine-Israel Journal to mark the launch of three European Union-funded policy papers on three core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their impact on the two-state solution.

Joining Herzog at the conference were European Union representative Christian Berger and former minister for Jerusalem affairs Ziad AbuZayyad, co-editor of the Journal.

AbuZayyad told the hundred-strong gathering of journalists, diplomats and academics that time was running out for a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, warning "we are five minutes before midnight."

Questioned by an impassioned lawyer about a January 21 report in Haaretz that the Interior Ministry has halted work permits for NGOs working in Palestinian territories, Herzog said he had just read the report and indicated that his office would look into it.

Palestine-Israel Journal co-editor Hillel Schenker told Haaretz that the conference held great significance, in particular as it helped foster dialogue between the two sides.

"The fact that Minister of Welfare Isaac Herzog agreed to be one of the keynote speakers at the conference was a statement on his part about the importance of this approach, of his desire to benefit from the process and to enter into a dialogue with civil society.

"It was particularly noteworthy that all of the questions to Minister Herzog came from prominent Palestinian intellectuals who were present," he said.