Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accused the Palestinian side for “lacking willingness” to sit down to negotiate the stalled West Asia peace process.

Netanyahu accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of trying to take advantage of the international community’s “Pavlovian reflex”, a psychological action that at times means behaving the way the other side doesn’t want you to do.

At a press conference with Chilean President, Sebastian Pinera, in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that “we are willing to sit down for negotiations but the Palestinians have found a variety of excuses not to do this”, responding to Pinera’s call to “not to miss the opportunity for peace.”

“I have not seen a parallel willingness on the Palestinian side to do the same because they are relying on a Pavlovian reflex from the international community,” the Israeli Premier said.

Netanyahu’s comments come shortly after sources in his office told the local media that the Premier was considering a plan to cooperate with the Palestinians on the establishment of a Palestinian state with temporary borders as part of an interim peace agreement with the that would be implemented immediately.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s new move is said to be spurred by the recent anti-government protests in the Arab world, and contradicts his earlier stand that he wants to attempt to reach a final-status agreement within a year.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected the purported initiative saying he would not accept an Israeli peace initiative if it called for temporary borders for a future Palestinian state.

The time has come for Palestine to become a permanent member of the UN, Abbas said on Saturday as he reiterated his opposition to the idea of a state with temporary borders.

The Palestinian leader made the comments after meeting Pinera, whose country recognised a Palestinian state in January.

But unlike other South American countries that made similar declarations, Chile did not simultaneously declare its recognition of the pre-1967 armistice lines as the contours of that state.

Direct peace talks between the two sides kicked off in September under US mediation but faltered only weeks after its launch after Israel refused to accept PA’s call to completely halt building activities in the West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians have described as the biggest road block in peace talks.

Netanyahu had earlier put a temporary freeze on building activities in the West Bank for ten months, but following its expiry on 26th September has been under intense pressure from his right-wing coalition partners to resume constructions in the area.