Barak warns of growing isolation of Israel due to peace process "rigidity"

Israel’s Defence Minister has called on his government to break the deadlock in the peace process. Ehud Barak said that failure to do so will lead to Israel’s isolation in the international arena.

In an interview with Radio Israel, Barak urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make the right connections and see how the United States and the European Union could help to restart the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and push the peace process forward.

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Mr Barak predicted that the Palestinian Authority will not agree on any interim agreement with the Israeli side, unless the agreement includes a vision for the final status. He warned about increasing “anti-Israel manifestations” internationally during the next few months as a result of the rigidity of the peace process.

The Israeli minister called on the international community “to create conditions for the Palestinian negotiator to resume negotiations and support Israel, as a stable, democratic state in the Middle East which is exposed to various threats.”