Mideast sides mulling alternatives to peace talks

JERUSALEM — With peace talks stalled, Israelis and Palestinians are quietly — and separately — looking for alternatives.

The scenarios range from the Palestinians going around Israel to seek world recognition for an independent state to Israel pushing for a scaled-down agreement that sidesteps the toughest issues, like sharing Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

The thinking is that few people believe a full peace deal within a year is achievable. And the impasse that has emerged over settlement construction has brought a difficult question to the surface: If the United States cannot compel Israel to extend a settlement freeze for a few months, how can the U.S. persuade Israel to make wrenching decisions over control of Jerusalem?

Both sides claim their first choice is still a full agreement, and the Obama administration is clinging to the hope that the peace talks will succeed.

But Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged in a speech to Palestinian Americans on Wednesday that it's a struggle.

"I cannot stand here tonight and tell you there is some magic formula that I have discovered that will break through the current impasse," she said.

Palestinians say the current situation cannot drag on indefinitely: they have a measure of self-rule in the main cities of the West Bank, but Israel controls the land in between and remains ultimately in charge, controlling the Palestinians through a complex permit system. The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, has essentially broken off — an isolated statelet run by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rejects the peace talks.

Palestinian officials said they don't expect Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to take drastic action before the year set aside for negotiations is up in September 2011. However, Abbas is starting to prepare for other options, and on Wednesday, more than a dozen senior Palestinian officials met for the first time — at the president's request — to discuss ideas.

The main alternative, according to officials, is to seek U.N. Security Council recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

"The U.N. is a possible option because this political battle ... needs to be transferred to the broader courtyard," said Yasser Abed-Rabbo, a top official of the Palestine Liberation Organization.