JERUSALEM -- Israeli Justice Minister and chief negotiator, Tzipi Livni, said on Tuesday that some people in Israel use national security as an "excuse" not to advance peace talks with the Palestinians, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Livni, who spoke at the Israeli Project conference, refuted some hawkish views that any compromise toward a future peace accord would damage Israel's security.

"In the Middle East, the choice is between bad options, bud doing nothing is more damaging," she said, adding that the United States can provide assurances that any future peace deal won't harm Israel's security.

Furthermore, Livni said her support of the two-state solution is backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and even Naftali Bennet, head of the nationalistic Jewish Home Party.

Livni, who met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last week, said prior to their meeting on Thursday that the "coming days are crucial" to the fate of the peace talks with the Palestinians, which came to a halt in 2010 over Israel's expansion of its West Bank settlements.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli Minister of Intelligence, International Relations and Strategic Affairs, Yuval Steinitz said the government endorses the two-state solution.

"The government's position is very clear on this matter... We do support two states for two people solution," he told the Times of Israel website. "We are ready to make painful concessions on two conditions: that there will be peace and security."

While admitting there are voices within the government objecting to such a formula, he charges that those voices "are not that important."

Netanyahu told Kerry last week that Israel is seeking to restart the peace process with the Palestinians.

Israeli President Shimon Peres, who attended the World Economic Forum in Jordan on Sunday, said that peace is "the general desire and clear option" for the Israeli people, adding that a future peace accord will be based on the two-state solution.

The premises of the two-state solution assure the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, with Israel returning lands annexed in the West Bank during the 1967 Mideast War.