Withdraw For Peace, Brown Tells Israel

"Today there is one historic challenge you still have to resolve so that your 60-year journey into the future is complete: peace with your neighbors and throughout the region," Brown told the Knesset, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

To deliver such a deal, "it is vital also that both sides now create the conditions for a final agreement," Brown said.

Brown, on his first visit to Israel and the West Bank since becoming prime minister in June 2007, called on Israel to free settlement construction and withdraw from the West Bank.

"It would require Israel freezing, and withdrawing from, settlements and like many of your friends, I urge you to make these decisions," he said, drawing a shout from one person in the chamber.

Israel's settlement activities have been one of the main obstacles to the Middle East peace process.

Israel is pushing ahead with plans to build hundreds more homes in the occupied West Bank, infuriating Palestinians and drawing international criticism.

The international community considers all Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land illegal.

"As a constant friend of Israel, I want to offer the comfort of my support and the support of the British government -- and also my honest analysis," Brown said.

"I believe that a historic, hard-won and lasting peace that can bring security on the ground is within your grasp... I urge you to take it by the hand."

Al-Quds

Brown said creating a Palestinian state to live beside Israel with both sharing al-Quds as their capital will be the key to peace in the Middle East.

This would entail "a democratic Israel, secure from attack, recognized by and at peace with all its neighbors alongside a peaceful, democratic and territorially viable state of Palestine that accepts you as its friend and partner."

Jerusalem would be the "capital for both," and there would be a "just and agreed settlement for refugees," he added.

Israel captured Al-Quds in the six-day 1967 war before annexing and declaring it part of its eternal undivided capital, a claim not recognized by the UN or the world community.

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