Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping to convince at least 30 countries to vote against recognizing a Palestinian state should the United Nations debate the issue in September, media reports said.

"Before we reach September, we have to push through an initiative to secure 30 countries and more who will say 'no' to the unilateral recognition in the U.N. General Assembly," the Israeli premier was quoted as saying by news website Ynet.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has told France he is ready to attend a Paris peace conference if Israel accepts talks based on the 1967 borders, an aide told AFP on Sunday.

Nimr Hammad, a political advisor to Abbas, said the president had told French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe that he agreed officially to France's proposal to host a peace conference in Paris before the end of July.

French writer Bernard Henri Levy said he delivered a message on Thursday from Libyan rebel leaders to Israel's premier saying they would seek diplomatic ties with Israel if they came to power.

Levy told Agence France Presse he passed on the verbal message from Libya's National Transitional Council during a 90-minute meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

The Egyptian government is having difficulty exerting full control over the Sinai Peninsula, allowing terror groups to flourish there, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

Netanyahu, who was addressing the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, also said that changes in the region had seen the Hamas movement begin to shift its activities from its headquarters in Syria to Egypt.

The DJ who remixed a rambling speech by Libya's Moammer Gadhafi with club beats that went viral on YouTube has taken on a new regional leader -- Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, better known as "Bibi."

First Israeli musician and DJ Noy Alooshe transformed a 75-minute Gadhafi oration into a catchy dance track called "Zenga, Zenga," featuring the strongman alongside footage of a gyrating girl in hotpants.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday the possible Palestinian drive for national recognition at the United Nations was a "mistake", in his most direct criticism yet of the campaign.

Obama also urged Israel and the Palestinians to make "wrenching compromise" for a peace deal after a week of acrimony left prospects of a final settlement more distant than ever.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday slammed a speech by Israel's prime minister and said the Palestinians would seek U.N. recognition if peace talks don't resume.

"Our first choice is negotiations, but if there is no progress before September we will go to the United Nations," Abbas said, criticizing a speech by Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hailed the "courageous Arab protestors" battling tyranny which has inflicted “the medieval rule of Hizbullah” on Lebanon.

"The brief democratic spring in Iran was cut short by a ferocious and unforgiving tyranny. This same tyranny smothered Lebanon's democratic Cedar Revolution,” Netanyahu said in an address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a cheering U.S. Congress on Tuesday he was willing to make "painful compromises" for peace with the Palestinians, but he offered little concrete to entice Palestinians back to the bargaining table.

By giving such a high-profile speech before overwhelmingly supportive U.S. lawmakers, Netanyahu was able to demonstrate to Israelis that he retains strong backing in the United States despite his frosty relations with President Barack Obama.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday vowed that the Jewish state would never withdraw to the "indefensible" 1967 border, revisiting a spat over the issue with U.S. President Barack Obama.

Netanyahu told the powerful pro-Israel lobby said he would spell out his vision for peace with the Palestinians in a speech to Congress on Tuesday, but promised that would not include a withdrawal to lines that existed before the 1967 Six Day War.