JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israeli settlers to act with restraint after a limited construction moratorium expires on Sunday, a plea that appeared aimed at keeping Middle East peace talks alive.

Netanyahu has resisted U.S. pressure to extend the 10-month limited freeze on housing starts in settlements in the occupied West Bank despite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s threats to quit the negotiations launched on September 2 in Washington.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel does not expect Palestinians to wage a new uprising if U.S.-backed peace talks launched this month fail, its top general said Tuesday.

“We are ready for all options,” Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, chief of staff of the armed forces, told a parliamentary committee, according to an official who briefed reporters on the session.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended Thursday three days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders with no visible sign of progress on breaking a deadlock over building in West Bank settlements.

In an ABC News interview, Clinton again gave voice to U.S. hopes that Israel would extend its partial construction moratorium past a September 30 expiration date.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has rejected a proposal to extend by three months a West Bank settlement building freeze whose looming expiration threatens to sink peace talks, officials close to the negotiations said on Thursday.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told Israel’s Channel 1 television on Thursday he proposed a three-month extension of the moratorium in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored in public remarks Sunday a nudge from U.S. President Barack Obama to extend a partial settlement freeze on land Palestinians want as part of their future state.

Speaking to reporters, Netanyahu made no mention of Obama’s remarks on settlements Friday, focusing instead on a bedrock Israeli demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people in any peace accord.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A peace deal with the Palestinians will require a creative, new approach to issues that have defied resolution in past negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Netanyahu, back from a Washington peace summit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at which they agreed to try to reach a framework accord within a year, gave no hint in remarks to his cabinet about any new ideas he may have in mind.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to a series of direct talks on Thursday, seeking to forge the framework for a U.S.-backed peace deal within a year and end a conflict that has boiled for six decades.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who hosted the first session of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, expressed confidence that this effort could succeed where so many others have failed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With a diplomatic push from U.S. President Barack Obama, Israeli and the Palestinian leaders will start direct peace talks on Thursday shadowed by skepticism on all sides and fresh violence in the volatile West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will meet at the State Department, relaunching talks after a 20-month hiatus and seeking a deal within one year that will set up an independent Palestinian state side-by-side with a secure Israel.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday not to let the chance for peace slip away, bringing them together for ceremonial handshakes at the White House on the eve of relaunching direct talks.

But with a fresh West Bank shooting attack and a persistent deadlock over Jewish settlements, Obama acknowledged scepticism “in some quarters” about his prospects for succeeding where so many U.S. leaders have failed and said he was under no illusions about the tough challenges ahead.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday not to let the chance for peace slip away as he opened a U.S.-sponsored summit to relaunch direct talks shadowed by Middle East violence.

But with a fresh West Bank shooting attack and a persistent deadlock over Jewish settlements, Obama acknowledged skepticism “in some quarters” about his prospects for succeeding where so many U.S. leaders have failed and said he was under no illusions about the challenges ahead.