Harvard jurist and Israel-advocate Alan Dershowitz this week claimed to have secured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s agreement to a settlement freeze formula that could lead to renewed peace talks.

Mr Abbas met Mr Dershowitz in New York on Monday ahead of his address to the UN General Assembly.

Mr Dershowitz told Ha’aretz after the meeting: “If Abbas and Bibi Netanyahu sit down and have serious talks, they will find their positions much closer than is widely believed.”

At the time of going to press it was reported that Mr Abbas would make “a positive statement” about the connection between Israel and the Jewish people in his speech to the UN.