Middle East: Seize Chance of Peace, Brown Urges Israel

Gordon Brown traveled to the heart of Israel's democracy yesterday to issue a powerful plea for the country's leaders to seize the opportunity of a lasting peace by making historic compromises.

In the first speech by a British prime minister to the Israeli parliament, Brown told the country's political elite that the "courageous leadership" running the Palestinian Authority offered Israel its best chance for peace in a generation.

Brown was given a standing ovation after congratulating Israel on its 60th anniversary in Hebrew - Mazal Tov - and speaking of his lifelong support for the country whose founding in 1948 showed the human spirit is "indomitable".

But he risked a rift with some Israeli leaders by calling on them to make three key compromises:

· Freezing - and then withdrawing from - settlements in the occupied West Bank. These are illegal under international law;

· Abandoning the dream of having a Jerusalem as the "eternal and indivisible" capital of Israel. The city's Arab-dominated eastern half has been occupied by Israel since 1967; · Accepting that Palestinian refugees, who demand a "right of return" to territory wholly within Israel since its founding in 1948, must be compensated.

Describing himself as a "constant friend" of Israel, Brown offered an "honest analysis" that Israel must be prepared to give ground. Under the Annapolis process launched last year, Israel and the Palestinian leadership are to agree a joint statement on creating two states - a "secure" Israel existing next to a "viable" Palestinian state.

Brown said: "I believe that a historic, hard-won, and lasting peace that can bring security on the ground is within your grasp; that the Palestinian authority under the courageous leadership of President Abbas and prime minister Fayyad offers Israel the best partner of a generation; that these men share with you a vision of peace and reconciliation - and they understand they can never achieve their goals for the Palestinian people at the expense of Israel's security.

"So because I believe that historic, hard-won and lasting peace is within your reach, I urge you to take it by the hand."

Brown called on today's generation of Israeli leaders to follow in the footsteps of three giants in the country's history who were all prepared to compromise.

He cited David Ben Gurion, the country's first prime minister who accepted that non-Jews should be offered citizenship; Menachem Begin, the former militant who went on to become prime minister and signed a peace deal with Egypt; and Yitzak Rabin, the former military commander who made peace with Jordan.

The speech had a mixed reaction. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister who welcomed it, has made clear he disagrees with Brown on the need to freeze Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Senior Israeli officials went further and said they were upset by Brown's reference to Jerusalem as capital of "both" Israel and a Palestinian state. Officials were also alarmed by Brown's reference to refugees. Israel adamantly rejects the "right of return", the demand that refugees should be able to reclaim land and homes.

Brown was briefly heckled during his speech and a couple of Knesset members appeared to walk out at one point.

The prime minister said he hoped to bring his two sons to Jerusalem to teach them the troubled history of the Jewish people. He also said he and his wife Sarah had been moved by Yad Vashem, the official Holocaust memorial museum.

"Even though I was familiar with the horrific facts nothing fully prepared me for what I saw at Yad Vashem," he said before warning Iran to abandon its "totally abhorrent" threats to destroy Israel.