U.S. to join Mideast talks in Jerusalem

WASHINGTON — Israeli and Palestinian leaders plan talks with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Jerusalem this month. The setting is a symbolic move to show the seriousness of peace negotiations.

U.S. officials said Sunday that Clinton would join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem on Sept. 15. The exact location wasn't immediately clear.

Those talks are to follow discussions Sept. 14 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

Jerusalem's status is a contentious issue in the negotiations, which kicked off last week in Washington.

Israel wants the city to remain the undivided capital of the Jewish state. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of an eventual state.

The Israeli prime minister struck an unusually conciliatory tone during the Washington peace summit and again Sunday, when he briefed his Cabinet about his 2 ½-hour meeting with Abbas in the U.S. capital.

Once a fervent opponent of Palestinian statehood, Netanyahu said Sunday he wants negotiations to succeed after 17 years of failed attempts. "I believe that what is needed now to move the process forward is not a proliferation of negotiating teams, but decisions by leaders," he said. "In order to reach practical solutions, we will need to think about new solutions to old problems. I believe that this is possible."

However, Israel's foreign minister, the hawkish Avigdor Lieberman, dismissed the whole process Sunday. He said a peace accord "is a target that is not attainable within the next year and not within the next generation."

Israel hinted Sunday it will ease restrictions on building in West Bank settlements, while the Palestinian president warned he'll quit the talks if Israel resumes construction.

Negotiations between Abbas and Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, broke off in December 2008, and Abbas only agreed under intense U.S. pressure to restart talks with Netanyahu.

The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. They are willing to accept some border adjustments that would enable Israel to keep some of the largest settlements, but they fear Netanyahu won't cede the large amounts of the territory they seek.

The Islamic militant Hamas, which wrested Gaza from Abbas in a violent takeover in 2007, has repeatedly said in recent days that Abbas has no right to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft bombed three Gaza smuggling tunnels late Saturday in retaliation for two Hamas shooting attacks that killed four Israelis in the West Bank last week.

The airstrikes killed two Palestinians and wounded a third. Two more Palestinians were missing.

Hamas officials identified all five as smugglers working in one of the many tunnels used to ferry goods under the Gaza-Egypt border.