Israel will make “dramatic decisions” to reach a final peace agreement that will end the conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s chief negotiator said Tuesday while warning that hawks inside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition are making her job more difficult.
Tzipi Livni’s remarks came as a senior Palestinian official said that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were to meet for their second round of peace talks Tuesday. The first round was held last week in Jerusalem under a cloak of secrecy.
The Palestinian official, who is close to the negotiations, refused to say where or when the talks were being held. He spoke on condition of anonymity because both sides promised U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry not to discuss details with the media.
Kerry spent months engaging in shuttle diplomacy between the two sides before they agreed to return to the table after a five-year freeze in negotiations.
Livni, speaking on Israel Radio, also refused to comment on talks, saying that holding negotiations far from the media is meant to build trust between the two sides.
But she predicted there would be “dramatic decisions in the end,” and lamented the lack of support from hardline elements in the coalition.
Talks collapsed in 2008 and remained stalled until now mainly over the issue of Israeli settlement construction in territory the Palestinians demand for their future state.
The Palestinians had demanded a settlement freeze in exchange for resuming talks — a demand that Israel refused.
Kerry managed to get the Palestinians to drop their demand in exchange for Israel’s release of veteran Palestinian prisoners involved in killing Israeli civilians and soldiers. Talks on a final peace deal are to last six to nine months.
Livni said that hawkish parties in the coalition are making the talks more difficult because of their opposition to establishment of a Palestinian state, the centerpiece of any peace deal.
“It is no secret that in this coalition there is at least one party … who objects to the idea of two states for two peoples, which is something I support with all my heart,” Livni said. “It is definitely very problematic in regard to the negotiations,” she said.
Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home Party, the coalition’s third largest, objects to conceding territory to the Palestinians. The party is allied with the Jewish settler movement.
Bennett is not alone. Many Israelis balk at the idea of withdrawing from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territory that along with the Gaza Strip, Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and the Islamic militant group Hamas later took over the territory and used it to fire thousands of mortars and rockets into the Jewish state.
Other territory the Palestinians want, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, has deep religious significance for many Jews, who see it as their biblical heartland and heritage.
Livni berated the dovish Labor party for declining the prime minister’s offer to join the coalition after elections early this year. She said their refusal paved the way for the current hawkish coalition. She said it would be easier if there was “a more solid majority in the government to the (peace) process and decisions.”
Tuesday’s talks were clouded by the death of a Palestinian man in a clash with Israeli forces. The Israeli military said he was killed after Israeli soldiers came under fire during an arrest raid in the West Bank town of Jenin.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner says the military was investigating.
Lerner said any military operation to apprehend suspects “in urban areas is an extremely complicated task” because they often “take refuge within the civilian population.”
(AP)
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20 Responses
Unless the Palestinians get what they want (an single Muslim state replacing Israel, i.e. a return to the status quo ante of 1913), any agreement will be an interim agreement not a final settlement.The Arabs are willing to trade “land” for “peace”, but places such as Tel Aviv and Hadera and Ramat Gan are among the settlments they want to be dismantled.
The only Israelis who can possibly make peace with the Muslims are some of the Hareidim, who couldn’t care less who runs the government as long as they are left alone to be frum in peace.
What a bunch
Baruch Hashem. It is so pleasent to see that even a right-wing Likud government will be giving the Arabs land for peace. No amount of land is worth one drop of Jewish blood. Even giving them Jerusalem is worth it, if it will save one Jewish life.
What a complete waste of time. After Livni finishes negotiating with herself – much like Barak once did, the Arabs will say no to the key phrases – recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and an end to hositilities. And even if they would agree to it, it of course would only include a portion of their population – excluding Hamas. So making a peace treaty with half the population would also be worthless.
#3 Just check out past and present history and you will see that there is no such thing as “LAND FOR PIECE”, unless it includes a JEW-FREE Israel/Palestine.
The only Israelis who can possibly make peace with the Muslims are some of the Hareidim, who couldn’t care less who runs the government as long as they are left alone to be frum in peace. – Check out the history of the MUFTI of Yerushalayim of the 20th Century who was a ‘moderate’ compared to the PLO/Fatah/Hamas/Hizbollah of today. Unless the Hareidim are willing to convert or leave the country that will not be LEFT ALONE to be frum in pieces….
#5 — The Mufti was radicalized by the Zionists.
Toras Moshe: Your comment is preposterous. if we follow such logic, then every anti-semite and “sonei yisroel’ was ‘rdsicalized’ byt the jews. Blame the vicitm indeed!
outrageous!
The question of whether more Jewish lives will be lost by preserving or by giving land aside, your statement that ‘No amount of land is worth one drop of Jewish blood’ is contradicted throughout the length and breadth of the Tanach.
It’s hard to read some of the responses that have no knowledge or sense of history.
#3 All land for peace ever got was spilled Jewish blood. That’s been the result of Gush Katif and also every time there has been negotiations. Arafat, Y”S was offered almost everything. There was no compromise on their part. They don’t want peace. The PLO was created when Jordan still controlled the land they captured in 1948. They only want Israel’s destruction.
#5 & . 6 The Mufti was working with the Nazi’s y’s to kill all the Jews in Israel long before there was an Israel. Where do you guys get your information from?
Also, it was no picnic for Jews living under Muslim control in the best of time. BTW, do you know anything about Chevron 1929?
Did you guys go to a Chassidh Yeshiva and never had an english subject?
#6- Then so were the Pelishtim, Babylonians, Assyrians, Edomites, Moabites na of course Amalek who feared Jews’ entry into EY. So was Eisav by the Zionist Yaakov Aveinu, and Sichon and Og by the Zionist Moshe Rabbeinu.
To #4
Jewish people received that land. In 1948 the Brisker Rav said Hashem was smiling. Us Jews received that land don’t let the Arabs disgrace har kadsho
Livni, as smart as Kerry.
So Israel will succeed in making peace with the Arabs — something the Arabs couldn’t do themselves, besides when they ganged up against Israel of course.
#6******* As I said the other day, you suddenly like goyim when it comes to Israel. Otherwise, you consider them non-human, tamei and lower than dogs. Suddenly they’re good guys when it serves your twisted purpose.
Have you ever thought that maybe YOU’VE been radicalized by the Spies of our generation?
#6 : Then presumably Moshiach will cause the radicalization of Gog which will cause a war, which will be Moshiach’s fault for wanting Jews to live in EY.
Also, all enemies of Jews/Zionists became more radicalized the second we received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. As a grand talmid chacham, you surely know that Sinai is called that because “Sinah” came down against us and G-D from that time.
But don’t let mere pestering facts get in the way for your sudden defense of the murdering Mufti.
#3___ Chas V’shalom Jewish blood should be spilled anywhere in the world. That said, it’s not your right to back land that Hakodesh Boroch Hu so generously gave us after nearly 2,000. His Plan cannot be stopped. Not by Netanyahu, Obama, Kerry, Iran, Hamas or even you. Start believing. Start accepting the reality.
O’kerry and Obama consider israel as a settlement, the only thing they forgot is israel is the land of the jews ant the arabs they only took back what is the jews, the americans is the land of the indians not the white man how meany indians did the white man kill for the indian land
BarryLS1, it’s hard to read responses from people who claim to know history as they berate others who actually do know history and those others happen to be correct.
Rabbi Baruch Kaplan, who was in Chevron at that time, testified that that Arabs were decent people and how he would often walk late at night by himself with no fear from the Arabs. B”H, Rabbi Kaplan was away for that Shabbos when the massacre by the Arabs occurred. Rabbi Kaplan testified that the Arab massacre in Chevron was caused by the Zionists (no, that does not absolve the Arabs, obviously). Religious Zionists, in this case, too. Look up “Shema Yisrael haKosel Kosleinu haKosel echad”.
Briefly, the Zionists insisted on having control over the Kosel, which the Arabs did not want. Then, the rumor spread among the Arabs that Al Aqsa mosque was in danger. Thus, the savages murdered these innocent Yeshiva students whom the Arabs mistook for Zionists.
The Mufti was said to have told Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld that he had no problem with Jews coming to live in E”Y, but that they would not stand for the Jews trying to rule over the Arabs there.
But the Zionists came along and insisted on creating their shmad state at any expense because shmad is more important to them than even a State and, as amply demonstrated, certainly more important to them than Jewish lives.
As for Jews living in Arab countries, how do you know it was, “even in the best of times”, “no picnic”? It was certainly far better than under European rule. And, until the Zionists intentionally shmaded the Yemenites, etc., the Yemenites had their mesorah intact since bayis rishon – only to have it forcibly taken from them by their “fellow Jews”. Ironic, isn’t it? It’s beyond tragic, really.
To Hakatan****So you believe the Mufti?
Israel was supposed to be divided so that both Jews and Arabs would have ruled their respective states.Even King Abdullah of Jordan had no problem with that initially, until he was pressured , but was assassinated in any case because he was negotiating with the Yishuv.
As far as as Jews living well with Arabs in other countries, read FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL and get the truth.
You would have been a MERAGEL who would’ve told the Jews to stay in the desert because the natives would’ve been offended. Your logic is false and your position is against Almighty G-D’s wishes. Israel is here anyway. Stop speaking loshon harah against His Plan.
#17… Please read my post under #10.
What you fail to understand, is that when Hashem gives EY to the Jews, opposition which is stimulated from the Satan, Sarim of the nations in the Heavens and by mekatrigim Chas Vesholom, wends its way down here. Those nations whom I mentioned in the upper post would never have bothered the Jews if they wouldn’t come into EY.
See the first Bal Haturim in this week’s parsha . He writes that Amalak attacked because he was afraid of the Jews’ entry into MEDINAS YISROEL. Open a chumash and learn something.
The Yemenite story as told by chareidim is an exaggeration and distortion of history. You can NOT prove your version .The truth lies somewhere in between.
Hakatan—— So here’s an idea. Let’s stop being Jewish altogether Chas vshalam and there’ll be no more anti-Semitism.Your logic is farkrumt. Anything about us whether just being alive as Jews and/or especially reurning to Israel Al Pi Hashem, will arouse hatred.
Incidentally, I don’t believe your Mufti story at either end. Either it’s completely untrue, or the Mufti was lying. But of course, in your rage against Zionists , you’ll believe even a lowlife murderer than accept Yad Hashem as we return to Zion…. against the will of the anti-Semites, and against the will of the Semites who are anti. Either way you lost.