Israel publicly stated on Sunday that it will not accept Palestine as a free state with new borders that have been drawn.
This will surely create issues for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has recently tried to bolster peace talks between the two countries that have warred with one another on political, cultural and religious levels for centuries.
The dominant Likud party's deputy defense minister Danny Danon told Fox News that "there is certainly no majority," amongst the far-right group that supports Palestine as an independent entity based on border lines mapped out before the 1967 Mideast war.
"A Palestinian state on the 1967 lines is something dangerous for Israel and therefore I oppose that idea," Danon told Channel 2 TV, also stating that most other members of hard-line conservative parties largely are against a return to the 1967 borders.
Currently, Palestinian leaders are asking Israel to recognize their statehood in the West Bank, east Jersualem and the Gaza Strip-all three areas Israel captured in the 1967 war.
According to Fox, the United States-along with other members of the international community-has backed 1967-line-based border conversations. But Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also a member of the Likud party, said that he will not sign off on any border-drawing. He claimed on Sunday he supports Palestinian freedom in theory, but the only negotiations that take place between Israel and Palestine will be for societal reconciliation.
Netanyahu also said that he will talk about the stalemate between the two nations with Senator Kerry, who has been moving between the warring states like a ping-pong ball the last couple of months, hoping to find some way to start a conversation.
"Together we will try to advance a way to find an opening for negotiations with the Palestinians with the goal of reaching an agreement," Netanyahu said. "This agreement will be based on a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state, and on solid security arrangements based on the Israeli military."
Peace talks have been put off for the last five years.
