By Yechiel Spira for YWN:

In a Wednesday address before a Harvard University audience, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni worked to play down this week’s announcement from Jerusalem that hundreds of new homes will begin construction over the Green Line. The change in policy came about following government announcements to freeze all construction.

Due to efforts, primarily by the Shas Party, the prime minister has signaled he will permit the construction of homes in a new hareidi section of Givat Ze’ev, situated just adjacent to the Ramot Road, over the Green Line.

The senior minister told her Cambridge audience that the construction is not government-sponsored, seeking to lighten the impact of the policy announcement which followed last week’s terror attack that claimed eight lives in a Jerusalem yeshiva.

Livni added that Israel has no intentions of re-taking Gaza, explaining that following the Israeli withdrawal in 2005, there would be no return, other than a necessary military presence to deal with current security realities.

Livni stressed that it is not government policy to “expand settlements,” adding that additional “settlements must be dismantled”, referring to yishuvim located in Yehuda and Shomron.

The foreign minister called on the international community to undertake a more pivotal role in peace-making efforts between Israel and the Palestine Authority.

[The author has been a member of the Israeli media for over a decade, primarily covering security related events.]