JERUSALEM — Israel’s opposition leader on Tuesday warned that a new Palestinian uprising could be looming after a recent spate of violence and called on both sides to reduce tensions and restart peace talks.
The appeal came during a meeting in the West Bank with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a rare face-to-face encounter after a more than yearlong diplomatic standstill.
Officials on both sides said that Abbas initiated the meeting with Isaac Herzog, leader of the opposition Zionist Union, in response to the violence of recent weeks.
Addressing reporters at Abbas’ West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, Herzog said the two men held an “in-depth” discussion that lasted more than an hour.
He said they agreed “first and foremost” that a new “intifada,” or uprising, must be prevented.
“We have agreed that in order to prevent a third intifada we must combat terror on the one hand aggressively, and on the other hand move toward a diplomatic process,” he said. “We must ignite the process yet again and give it another effort.”
After the meeting, Herzog wrote on his Facebook page that he believed a deal could be reached within two years if there was sufficient political will.
For now, the odds of bringing Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu together for a meeting — much less restarting peace talks — appear virtually nonexistent.
Israel and the Palestinians have held on-again, off-again peace talks over the past two decades, and the latest round of U.S.-brokered negotiations broke down more than a year ago with little progress.
The U.S. is not expected to resume peace efforts until after a congressional vote on the international community’s Iranian nuclear deal. Netanyahu bitterly opposes the deal, and with U.S.-Israel ties suffering, the prospects for any new U.S. diplomatic initiative seem poor.
