Herzog: Netanyahu 'blinked' under pressure
In comments following reports of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backing away from a possible regional peace initiative, head of the opposition MK Isaac Herzog said Netanyahu buckled under pressure from hard-line allies.
Isaac Herzog says he was willing to join Netanyahu's government based on a secret regional peace initiative brokered by then-US Secretary of State John Kerry, but that talks broke down when Netanyahu "blinked" under pressure from his hard-line allies.
Herzog told Channel 10 TV Sunday night that the agreement "would have changed the face of the Middle East and the one who ran away at the end was Netanyahu."
Former American officials have confirmed the report that Netanyahu turned down an offer that would have secured regional recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
Speaking to ministers from his Likud party, Netanyahu said that he had participated in a clandestine meeting on February 21, 2016 in the Jordanian Sea resort of Aqaba with the then US secretary of state John Kerry, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
A spokesperson for Netanyahu declined to comment on the report. Al-Sisi's office issued a statement referring to the news report, without mentioning a specific newspaper, as having "incorrect information," but did not deny that a meeting took place. No immediate comment was available from Jordan.
