At a brief news conference with Israeli reporters who came to cover the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at the end of last week (May 24-26) in Jordan, I asked Israeli President Shimon Peres whether the Palestinian demand that negotiations on a permanent Israeli-Palestinian arrangement be based on the 1967 border was reasonable, in his view.

“The main thing is to enter negotiations,” he said, avoiding the question in his typical light fashion.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu stubbornly rejects this ultimate Palestinian demand. I know that behind closed doors, Peres expresses his frustration with Bibi’s position. The president knows that the prime minister rejected a proposal by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to launch a secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiating channel for a short trial period, with no preconditions. Such a channel would have enabled Netanyahu to freeze construction in the settlements without getting tied up in an official announcement of a freeze which would have rattled his coalition government. Peres is also frustrated with the fact that Netanyahu rejected his request to allow a foreign businessman to invest in an impressive Palestinian initiative in Area C. The area constitutes 60% of the West Bank territory and has already been under full “temporary” Israeli control for 20 years.

As might have been expected, when speaking into the many microphones placed before him, Peres chose his words carefully. At the age of 90 he still manages to maneuver with amazing agility. He did the same thing in answering a different question at the news conference, a somewhat vicious one, at that: “Will your vision of peace end up in the same way as the electric-car initiative, Better Place?” he was asked. Peres pulled an evasive answer out of his sleeve. He explained that the vision of a battery-run car was sound, and it remains so, and that the failure of Better Place resulted solely from management problems.