By Anees Barghouthy
JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has named Interior Minister Silvan Shalom to lead peace talks with the Palestinians – which have been stalled since last year – and work on improving relations with Washington.
Shalom, who is also Israel's deputy prime minister, will assume the role played by former justice minister Tzipi Livni under the former government.
Speaking to Israel Radio, Livni vowed to support any government minister who sought a political settlement with the Palestinians.
Livni, however, said Shalom's appointment would not be enough to alter the international community's stance on the self-proclaimed Jewish state.
"I know the prime minister and his positions on the Palestinian issue," she said.
Peace talks between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators ground to a halt in early 2014 after Israel failed to honor an earlier pledge to release a group of Palestinian detainees.
In the one year since, relations between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel have deteriorated markedly, especially after the West Bank-based PA signed a reconciliation deal with rival Palestinian faction Hamas.
At the time, Netanyahu had asserted that Fatah – led by PA President Mahmoud Abbas – had chosen to ally itself with Hamas, an arch-enemy of Israel.
Relations deteriorated further a few months later after the Palestinians joined a number of international organizations, including The Hague-based International Criminal Court.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. Later, in a move never recognized by the international community, Israel annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as its capital.
Palestinians want their own independent state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
