Exclusive: Israelis act out Palestinian independence push

>HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) - An Israeli simulation of reactions to the Palestinian push to declare independence concluded Thursday that it would isolate and divide Israel but that big powers would not rush to recognize a state declared unilaterally. The gathering of academics and ex-officials, playing key political roles, saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambling to calm rightists in his government while Washington urged accelerated peace talks as an alternative to U.N. approval of "Palestine" within 1967 borders."The Palestinians are going it alone, but with international consensus behind them," rued "Netanyahu" -- played by former Mossad spymaster Shabtai Shavit -- during a convincingly harried cabinet debate staged at a leafy college campus near Tel Aviv.Set in next September's United Nations general assembly, the simulation reflected Israeli unease at Palestinians' lobbying for foreign endorsement of their claim to a state embracing all the West Bank and East Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the 1967 war and increasingly taken over for Israeli settlement. In reality, the Netanyahu government has been drafting responses should the Palestinian campaign eventually win big power support, and it had two representatives observing the half-day event at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya.Ashraf al-Ajrami, an ex-cabinet minister under Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who played him for the simulation, began by seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution recognizing the proposed state and sidestepping his stalled talks with Israel.The council was split, wary of effectively declaring the end of a negotiated Middle East solution and perhaps stoking a new conflict along disputed frontiers. But, to Israel's distress, the United States threatened not to veto the resolution.Instead, the Americans proposed new phrasing backing the "objective" of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in exchange for Netanyahu's assent to a regional peace summit launching multilateral talks on a six-month timeline."We're serious now," "Obama," played by former Israeli envoy to Washington Zalman Shoval, told a dubious "Abbas." "If, when the time comes, I have to explain to the Security Council why this failed, I'll be sure to note the responsible party."ROOMS WITH A VIEWIn what an IDC organizer said was a deliberate tactic, the Palestinian and American "delegations" had airy, abutting conference rooms. "Netanyahu" and his partners, meanwhile, crammed into a shuttered, stifling upper-storey office.That seemed to contribute to the friction between Shavit's premier and those standing in for centrist Defense Minister Ehud Barak and ultranationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.Barak, played by his real-life party ally Einat Wilf, offered to curb West Bank settlement growth and thus woo Abbas. Lieberman, played by settler-politician Effi Eitam, demanded the Israeli army be deployed to assert and if necessary fight for West Bank control, and threatened to quit the government."Let's see you hold new elections in the midst of this diplomatic crisis," he told "Netanyahu.""Obama" tried to shrug off the prospect of a crippling Israeli government shake-up.The simulation predicted other wild cards. 1 2 Next United Nations