"It is a useless and empty gesture because it will not change anything," the official said a day after Chile announced it has recognised Palestine as an independent state, in the footsteps of other Latin American countries.

"It will not advance the cause of peace by an inch," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Chilean government adopted on Friday a resolution "recognising the existence of the state of Palestine as a free, independent and sovereign state," Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno said in Santiago.

"The Chilean announcement, like those preceding it in Latin America, will not encourage the Palestinians to negotiate," the Israeli official said.

He noted, however, that Chile did not mention the thorny issue of the borders of the Palestinian state and called for a resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

"Santiago has shown realism and a sense of responsibility by expressing positions which are very close to ours."

Late last year, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador recognised Palestine as an independent state which they said was "within the 1967 borders."

Those were the boundaries that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the June 1967 Six-Day War.

The borders of a final Palestinian state have been one of the thorniest issues in peace negotiations with Israel.

Direct talks between the two sides, the first for nearly two years, began on September 2 but stalled after a 10-month Israeli settlement-building freeze expired three weeks later.

In a New Year's Eve address, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas urged the international community to come up with a new peace plan after months of US shuttle diplomacy failed to secure a fresh settlement freeze.

earlier related report
Israelis protest NGO probe: report
Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 9, 2011 - A group of leading Israeli intellectuals has written to the Israeli parliament to protest plans for an investigation into the funding of left-wing rights groups, Haaretz newspaper said Sunday.

On January 5, Israeli MPs voted to form a parliamentary inquiry to investigate the funding of rights groups allegedly helping to build war crimes cases abroad against Israeli military personnel.

The letter sent to all 120 members of Israel's Knesset accuses the legislative body of having "raised its hand against democracy in Israel," according to an excerpt of the text published by the Israeli daily.

Signed by academics, artists and left-wing political figures, the letter harshly criticises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"He, and each of the 41 MKs (lawmakers) who voted for the establishment of a political committee to hunt the human rights organisations, will be remembered as being the ones who attempted to smash what is left of democracy in Israel and impose a fascist regime," Haaretz quoted the letter as saying.

"What is worse, only 17 MKs bothered to try to stop the destruction. Each and every MK who did not find time to oppose the initiative to end democracy in Israel bears personal responsibility for the disaster. A black flag now flies above the legislature in Israel."

The scope and details of the inquiry, proposed by the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, await definition in the Knesset's House Committee.

But as proposed, the investigation would look into the funding of groups accused of working to bring Israeli military personnel and political figures before international tribunals on allegations of war crimes.

Among the letter's signatories are professors Yehuda Bauer, Chaim Adler, Yermiyahu Yovel and Micha Ullman, artist Danny Karavan, and Shulamit Aloni, a co-founder of left-wing political party Meretz.

Local human rights groups have described moves to investigate them as "authoritarian, immoral and illegitimate."

earlier related report
Israel army to enlist more ultra-Orthodox
Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 9, 2011 - Israel's cabinet on Sunday voted to double the number of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men called up for compulsory military service, a move described as revolutionary by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A statement from Netanyahu's office said that the decision would boost the number of ultra-Orthodox men joining the army from about 1,000 at present to 2,400 by 2015.

It said a further 2,400 would perform alternative forms of national service outside the military.

Such alternatives typically include working in hospitals, the police force, or as paramedics.

In many ultra-Orthodox families, men devote all of their time to studying scripture and raise typically large families with the help of grants from religious foundations and the state welfare system.

Sunday's statement said that 60 percent of the ultra-Orthodox are classified as living below the poverty line but that those who had served in the army bucked the trend, with 80 percent of them finding jobs.

"This is a revolution, a significant revolution," Netanyahu told reporters at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting.

"It will have very great consequences for the integration of the ultra-Orthodox into society and the economy."

Traditionally most of the community's young men and women were exempted from army service on the grounds of full-time religious study or because the military environment flouts religious prohibitions on contact between men and women.

Most other Israelis serve a mandatory three years in the case of men and a little less than two years for women, beginning at age 18.

Arab Israelis are not obliged to serve but may volunteer.

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