Was Barak’s call for unilateral action with the Palestinians a trial balloon?

By Ben SalesJewish Telegraphic Agency
(JTA) — Was Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s recent suggestion that Israel take “unilateral action” to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a hint at a policy under discussion or just an off-the-cuff remark? And how will the response of others — such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — shape the country’s fate in the coming months?“We must aim to discuss all of the core issues, putting an end to the  conflict, and an end to mutual claims,” Barak said at the end of a May 30 speech at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “If this appears to be impossible, we need to think of an interim agreement, and even unilateral actions.”Netanyahu’s unprecedented 94-member governing coalition, he added, gives Israel an “opportunity to advance the peace process.”But Netanyahu’s past statements make such unilateral actions — especially withdrawal from portions of the West Bank and settlement dismantlement — seem unlikely. The Israeli leader consistently has called for direct negotiations without preconditions and he repeated that during his own speech at the institute on the day before Barak’s talk. Last year Netanyahu called the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral effort to obtain United Nations statehood recognition “an attempt to avoid negotiations that are based on mutual compromise.”President Obama also strongly opposed the Palestinian U.N. statehood bid, and repeatedly has urged Israel and the Palestinian Authority to restart direct negotiations.For his part, as prime minister from 1999 to 2001, Barak engaged in both direct negotiations and unilateral action. In late spring 2000, he unilaterally withdrew Israeli troops from southern Lebanon, ending Israel’s 18-year occupation there — albeit one  very different from its occupation of the West Bank.