Agence France Presse is reporting that Middle East Peace talks are likely to begin on February 20, following an agreement in principle by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to "indirect talks with Israel under US mediation."

The details from an unnamed Palestinian official, include:

"These contacts will be aimed at creating a better climate and reaching an understanding on the borders of the Palestinian state, and they will begin on February 20," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"They will last three months, with the Americans negotiating directly with the two sides after determining a timetable and agreed-upon mechanisms for implementation."

The official said US Middle East envoy George Mitchell would shuttle between the two sides, either travelling between Jerusalem and the West Bank political capital of Ramallah or between separate rooms at a hotel or other location.

Under the proposal, Israel would implement a five-point initiative proposed by Mitchell that would include the freeing of Palestinian prisoners and a halt to Israeli incursions in Palestinian cities, the official said.

Israel would also transfer additional areas of the West Bank to Palestinian control, reopen Palestinian political offices in east Jerusalem, and allow building materials and other goods into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Abbas has also demanded that Washington present a document with its position regarding final status issues, including the fate of Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem and final borders, the official said.

This appears to confirm Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's comment last week at the Herzliya conference: "I have reasons to believe, realistically, that we will resume the peace process with the Palestinians, without prior conditions, in the coming weeks."

This news, if it proves true, could help explain why there was such thunder last week from the religious right - including an anti-peace political caucus formed in Israel's Knesset, and the extremist tactics of a group called Im Tirtzu involving the Jerusalem Post. These folks see Israel's withdrawal from any of the occupied West Bank as a mistake, despite all the violence and despair the 42-year-old occupation has caused with neighboring Muslim states - and with followers of Islam around the world.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, offering a moderate voice for peace, had some great advice yesterday for Netanyahu:

A resumption of peace negotiations centered around an almost total Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank presents Netanyahu with a two-fold challenge. If he takes positions in keeping with the sentiments of the Land of Israel lobby, he will be thrust into a confrontation with the U.S. administration and denounced internationally as an opponent of peace. But if he takes the path proposed by Secretary of State Clinton, he will run into confrontation with his own Likud party and his right-wing coalition partners....

Netanyahu has thus far avoided making a decision and for some time has relied on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' refusal to engage in direct negotiations....

Instead of senselessly courting the right, he should take a courageous stand and state clearly to his political partners that a withdrawal from the territories and the evacuation of the settlements are what is needed. Otherwise Defense Minister Ehud Barak's warning that without partition Israel will become a binational apartheid state will become a reality.

Cross Posted from True/Slant.

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