NETANYAHU PROMISES NOT TO RE-DIVIDE JERUSALEM:

 PM Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his call for a peace deal on Sunday 5 May 2016, during a Jerusalem Day ceremony in the capital city, even as he said he would not agree to re-divide Jerusalem as it was until the 1967 Six Day War. "For 49 years Jerusalem has been liberated from its handcuffs and we will not return to that reality, never again," he promised, in an event attended by President Reuven Rivlin, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and numerous other diplomats. "Jerusalem is not free of problems, we are dealing with them, but the reality of a divided city, a wounded city, a torn city - to that reality we will not return." Netanyahu's declaration, which was accompanied by a call for peace talks, came the same day Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said he would not agree to any peace deal that did not include a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem. In his speech Netanyahu continued by saying he wants to enter peace negotiations with Abbas. "I am interested in renewing the diplomatic process whose goal is achieving peace, but in a direct negotiation between us and our neighbors, in which they eventually will recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. Peace is not achieved by international edicts," he said, in criticism of the French initiative to renew talks. (Arutz-7)