国际英语新闻：Is Netanyahu trying to shift the focus with new offer?

JERUSALEM Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The aftermath to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech on Monday, offering a possible extension on settlement construction freeze if the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, has questions arisen regarding the timing and reason for the offer.

Israel's 10-month moratorium on building in the West Bank, part of the efforts by U.S. President Barack Obama to restart Israeli- Palestinian peace talks, ended on Sept. 26. The talks were relaunched in early September but came to a halt again on Oct. 2 with the freeze ending, while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that the freeze be extended if negotiations were to continue.

The borders of the Palestinian state is one of the three major questions that would have to be solved before a final peace deal can be signed, together with the status of Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees that fled or left when Israel was established.

Netanyahu said at the Knesset (parliament) on Monday that if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish nation's state, he could extend the settlement construction freeze.

"Netanyahu speech was an attempt to end the peace process," Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Xinhua.

The Palestinian National Initiative is a Palestinian political party established in 2002 and sees itself as a third path in Palestinian politics and as an alternative to Fatah and Hamas, the two dominating Palestinian movements.