Suspend talks with Abbas, Yishai urges
Gil Hoffman , THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 9, 2007
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In his first direct challenge to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert since joining
his coalition, Shas chairman Eli Yishai called upon him Monday to suspend
his talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas until the
Palestinians halt terrorism.

Yishai has been under pressure from the Right to act tough amid reports that
Olmert was negotiating the division of Jerusalem and the return of
Palestinian refugees in his talks with Abbas. But Yishai had refrained from
issuing threats, because he wanted to repair Shas's image as a serial
initiator of coalition crises.
"Coming to a summit while terrorism continues is a decision that is doomed
to failure," Yishai told reporters at the Shas faction. "The summit is
liable to bring about more terrorism, which happened when Barak went to Camp
David. Olmert needs to cancel [the summit]. Drafting a document would be
artificial and pointless."

Yishai said it was wrong to even discuss the future of Jerusalem with the
Palestinians. He said giving up Arab neighborhoods on the eastern side of
the capital would lead to Israel giving up Jewish neighborhoods like
Rehavia.

"If we talk to the Palestinians, it should be about issues like respecting
previous agreements and stopping Kassam rockets and incitement," Yishai
said.
"Jerusalem is stronger than all Israeli governments past and future. I am
against talking about what to give up, because it only damages us."

Yishai said he would instead advocate giving the Palestinians economic
incentives and jobs and restart talks with them "in two or three years" if
terrorist attacks stopped.

Olmert was also criticized from the Right by Labor chairman Ehud Barak, who
warned him against "rash" decision-making and "taking serious matters too
lightly" in his talks with Abbas. He said Labor wanted the Annapolis summit
to succeed but that Olmert must be careful.

"This is not North America or Western Europe and only we can defend our
interests," Barak said. "We need to examine the dangers of not having a
diplomatic process and of proceeding forward and later finding out that the
other side cannot deliver and has left us with Hamas."

Ironically, the coalition partner that seemed most loyal to Olmert on Monday
was Israel Beiteinu. Party chairman Avigdor Lieberman called a press
conference in which he reassured Olmert that he saw no reason to leave the
coalition.

Lieberman responded to criticism from the Right that he incurred after he
revealed in Sunday's cabinet meeting that Israel Beiteinu supported
withdrawing from Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem as part of territorial and
population exchanges in a diplomatic agreement with the Palestinians.

"Yesterday the Left attacked me, then the Right attacked me," Lieberman
said. "When the Left attacked me, I was worried, but when I saw that the
Right also attacked me, I realized I must be doing something right."

Lieberman complained about a "strange coalition" against him made up of
Right-wing activist Baruch Marzel and National Religious Party chairman
Zevulun Orlev, who fiercely criticized his statements on Jerusalem, and
Meretz MKs Yossi Beilin and Zehava Gal-On, who blasted him for calling the
Israeli Left "kapos." He said Israel Beiteinu's platform on Jerusalem had
been on-line on the party's Web site for two years, but that Marzel and
Orlev had raised the issue because they were frustrated by their parties'
inability to cross the electoral threshold.

Lieberman said that unlike the Left, Israel Beiteinu was not willing to make
"concessions" on Jerusalem, just exchanges of populations and territories.
He said those exchanges would not include the Old City or Mount Scopus.

"It's wrong to fix the Palestinian problem without addressing the Israeli
Arab problem," Lieberman said. "The Jewish people didn't pray to come back
to Anata and Shuafat, but also not to Taibe and Umm el-Fahm. In return for
Givat Ze'ev and Gush Etzion, we are ready to exchange Anata and Shuafat,
where the only connection to Israel is that they receive National Insurance
payments."