[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA

Bring on the clowns. Here is the Olmert team stating Israel's position:

"But we cannot afford a situation in which, on the surface, there may be
some quiet days, but simultaneously, the terrorists are acquiring more and
more weapons and will decide when to use it..... We cannot afford a
terrorist state in Gaza. We cannot afford a failed state as part of the
future Palestinian state or an extreme Islamic terrorist state as Gaza seem
to be right now. So we need to give an answer both to the missiles coming
from Gaza Strip and to the buildup of Hamas, the tunnels, and Egypt."
FM Livni in joint press conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice 5 March

"Israelis don't wake up every morning thinking of how to strike Gaza next.
If we are not attacked, we won't attack either."
PM Olmert in joint press conference with Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom
5 March

====

Joint Press Conference with Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign
Affairs Tzipi and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Jerusalem, 5 March 2008

FOREIGN MINISTER LIVNI: Hello. I would like to welcome again Secretary Rice
in the region, for a very short but yet fruitful visit, I hope - I know. Of
course, we discussed the situation in the region and we needed to address
very important issues. On one hand, the bilateral peace process between
Israel and the Palestinians according to the Annapolis understanding, and on
the other hand, the situation in which Israeli civilians are under attack
from the Gaza Strip, and this is something that we also need to address.

This kind of complicated situation needs some answers and the idea is to
continue the peace negotiations while giving an answer to Israeli civilians
being attacked by Hamas, and this is what the Israeli government is going to
do with the help of Secretary Rice. Thank you.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much. Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Tzipi,
for having me here. We've just concluded very good discussions, as I've
concluded very good discussions with all of the parties. We've talked about
the need to restore calm and, of course, that means also to stop the rocket
attacks against Israeli citizens. We have talked about the need to return to
the path of negotiations.

There are enemies of peace that will always try to hold hostage the
Palestinian cause and the future of the Palestinian people for their own
state. And Hamas, which in effect, holds the people of Gaza hostage in their
hands, is now trying to make the path to a Palestinian state hostage to
them. And we cannot permit that to happen. We're working very hard to
address the situation, particularly in Gaza. Assistant Secretary Welch is
going to return to Egypt for discussions with the Egyptians about how the
situation can be improved, including how to deal with issues that we have
been addressing for some time, like the tunnels in which Hamas is using to
smuggle goods and weaponry into Gaza.

I know too that the Israelis and Egyptians have been in touch. I'm concerned
about the need to improve conditions on the ground in the West Bank and I've
urged both sides to live up to their roadmap obligations and in furtherance
of that goal, Lieutenant General Frazier will convene the Tripartite
Committee on Roadmap Obligations next week. We have to set a date, but I
believe it's likely to be on Thursday of next week, at which we will have
the first of those trilaterals to deal with roadmap obligations.

And we are, of course, concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The U.S. government has pledged to UNRWA - that pledge has reached $148
million for 2008. I've also talked a lot about the importance of continuing
the negotiations because ultimately, the answer to many of these problems
has to be given in the solution that Annapolis put forward, which is two
states living side by side in peace and security. And to that end, I've been
informed by the parties that they intend to resume the negotiations and that
they are in contact with one another as to how to bring this about.

And so thank you very much for a very good visit here and I look forward to
continuing our discussions.

Q: Abu Mazen said this morning that he wants a truce or a ceasefire between
Israel and Hamas before he resumes peace talks. Is that in conflict at all
with what you just said? And a majority of Israelis say they support some
kind of truce talks. Madame Foreign Minister, do you see any alternative to
talking to Hamas on some level given that they control Gaza and aren't going
away? And Madame Secretary, are you advocating such a deal or truce?

SECRETARY RICE: First of all, I have talked with Abu Mazen and President
Abbas and he obviously would like to see calm. He has spoken publicly about
his desire for a ceasefire, but this is not a condition for resumption of
the talks. Secondly, as to how calm comes about, I have made clear our view
that it ought to be pretty clear how calm comes about. The rocket attacks
against Israel ought to stop. And as I've said, as Israel defends itself,
Israel also needs to be very careful about innocent people who get caught in
the crossfire, about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza. And so there is a
path forward and I leave it to the Israeli Foreign Minister to give her
answer to your question, but I think it ought to be pretty clear how we get
to a calm situation.

FOREIGN MINISTER LIVNI: Well, clearly, since Hamas took control of the Gaza
Strip, we adopted a dual strategy. And when I say "we," I mean the
international community and, of course, the United States of America,
Israel, and the pragmatic leaders in the Palestinian Authority. The idea is
to work with diplomatic leaders, to try and reach a peace treaty with them,
while simultaneously working in order to delegitimize Hamas as a terrorist
organization and to find an answer to these terror attacks coming from the
Gaza Strip to Israel. In facing the threat coming from the Gaza Strip, it is
important to understand that Israel left the Gaza Strip, we dismantled
settlements, we took our forces out. So it's not part of our ideology to be
there, but we need to give an answer to the lives and to security of Israeli
citizens who are under daily attack from the Gaza Strip.

The problems there are, one, the attacks on Israel and the other is the
buildup of Hamas, which has now begun to be more like a small army and less
a terrorist organization, and they are trying to get more and more weapons
coming through Egypt to the Gaza Strip. So we need to address these two
problems simultaneously and this is also what Secretary Rice said about the
talks with Egypt. Of course, as was said since the beginning, Israel needs
to provide security to its citizens and we need to provide an answer to
terror attacks coming from the Gaza Strip to our cities. This is the reason
for the Israeli decision to take military action against Hamas in the Gaza
Strip.

Q: I would like to have both Secretary Rice and Minister Livni address this
question. First, if you could verify a report that we have heard that you
are about to dispatch David Welch to Cairo regarding this progress - maybe a
ceasefire, maybe an Egyptian solution to the situation? Another question is
being that the United States refrained from transferring $120 million to
Egypt for a good reason, saying that Egypt doesn't do enough to stop the
smuggling of weapons into Gaza from Sinai. And lately, on the last visit
that you had to Cairo, you actually okayed that sum. How does that meet with
the fact that those Katyusha
rockets are still being fired to Ashkelon and Sderot?

SECRETARY RICE: First of all, in terms of David Welch, yes, I have asked
David Welch to go back to Egypt, but it is to look at the entire situation
in the
Gaza. We have been working all along with Egypt and with Israel, and indeed
with the Palestinian Authority, to deal with the situation that has obtained
in Gaza since Hamas' illegal takeover there. That means security issues, it
means humanitarian issues, it means trying to do something about the tunnels
which continue to be a problem. So that is the reason for David's return to
Egypt. But as I said, Israel and Egypt have their own direct contacts too.
We're not trying to broker something here. It's just a matter of all parties
discussing.

As to the waiver, I would just note that the Administration sought the
waiver for flexibility in dealing with our complex relationship with Egypt
and it is called a national interest or a national security waiver. And it
is, in our view, best at this point to exercise that waiver. I have said to
the Egyptians that we continue to be concerned about the situation
internally in Egypt in terms of democracy, human rights, and the reforms in
Egypt. That was also part of the concern, as well as needing Egypt to do
more to deal with the tunnels. But the waiver is a national interest or a
national security waiver and I took it on those grounds.

FOREIGN MINISTER LIVNI: Of course we are talking about the border, which is
now between Gaza and Egypt. When Israel decided to leave the Gaza Strip
according to the disengagement plan, we also left what is called the
Philadelphi Corridor, which is now the border between the Gaza Strip and
Egypt. Now clearly, this border is being used - abused by - Hamas in order
to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip and this is something that we cannot
afford.
Everybody needs to understand that the Israeli citizens are being terrorized
by rockets coming from the Gaza Strip. We were talking about the smuggling
of weapons, about the fact that the range of the missiles now covers also
other civil population centers in Israel, and this is something that we
cannot live with.
So we need to address these two major threats coming from the Gaza Strip.
One, of course, is the missile attacks on Israeli civilians. This is one
thing. But we cannot afford a situation in which, on the surface, there may
be some quiet days, but simultaneously, the terrorists are acquiring more
and more weapons and will decide when to use it. And also on this, when I
say "we," I am referring to the region. "We" is, of course, the Israeli
citizens and the government officials, and Of course Egypt cannot afford it
and the pragmatic Palestinian leaders cannot afford it.

But there's a need to understand that when we are talking about two states
for two peoples, living side by side in peace and security, there is a need,
of course, to continue the peace negotiations. Israel, of course, is willing
to do so. And we believe that it is important to continue to do so because
we don't want to place the keys for our future in the hands of Hamas. But on
the other side, there's a better understanding now that the path to the
establishment of a Palestinian states, which includes Gaza Strip, needs to
give an answer to the situation on the ground in Gaza Strip. We cannot
afford a terrorist state in Gaza. We cannot afford a failed state as part of
the future Palestinian state or an extreme Islamic terrorist state as Gaza
seem to be right now. So we need to give an answer both to the missiles
coming from Gaza Strip and to the buildup of Hamas, the tunnels, and Egypt.

Q: This is for both of you. Hamas seems to have now shown that they can
hijack this peace process whenever they want -

FOREIGN MINISTER LIVNI: Unfortunately.

Q: - even if there is a ceasefire. You know, we have no guarantee that this
will last and they start rocket attacks again. Given this, how can we expect
this peace process to continue and to be successful if Israel does not
either begin negotiations with Hamas and take them into account or go into
Gaza and rout them out?

FOREIGN MINISTER LIVNI: Okay. This was the understanding in Annapolis. The
Annapolis understanding, based on the fact that we will negotiate with the
pragmatic leaders even though they don't control Gaza Strip right now, while
meeting the challenge coming from the Gaza Strip in order to change the
situation in the Gaza Strip in the future in order to create and to
establish a Palestinian state, which includes, according to the Palestinian
aspiration, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Now, I said in advance, and I said it in Annapolis and I said it in Paris
and I said it today: I knew when we signed Annapolis understanding that
there would be temptations to stop the negotiations because of the situation
on the ground. And I said that the success of the negotiations is based on
the determination of the two leaderships, Israeli and Palestinian - to
continue the negotiations. Even though I was sometimes accused by leaders
from the opposition - and the Israeli coalition - as well for negotiating in
the face of terror, we were determined to continue. The same day when a
suicide bomber killed an Israeli in Dimona, the same day last week when an
Israeli was killed in Sapir College near Sderot - the next day, the day of
his funeral, I said clearly and I said it also in the parliament that we
will not give Hamas control over our lives and our future. This is why we
need to continue the peace negotiations and simultaneously to work against
terrorism.

Now, clearly I expect my co-partners - and I said it to them as well - to
act the same. It is important for them as it is important for us. Peace
negotiations is not a gift that somebody givesanother. It's a mutual
interest, it's a mutual aspiration and it's a mutual dream of our two
peoples. So we need to be strong enough to face internal criticism. It's
easy to do so when we know that we are doing the right thing.

SECRETARY RICE: Look, the situation has been difficult. But in my
conversations with both leaders, I've had very strong affirmation of - not
just the desire to get this agreement, but the necessity to get this
agreement. And I am pleased that the parties have said that they're going to
resume negotiations, they intend to do that, and that contacts will begin
between them to bring that about. To be very clear, Annapolis, of course,
was the point at which we recognized - and by the way, you only had to look
at the history of any negotiation in this region to see that rejectionists
have tried from time to time, actually, almost every time, to derail, to
hold hostage the negotiations. And so we have to find a way to make these
negotiations robust.

You know, one point that I have made to both sides is that one thing that
will make these negotiations more robust is more robust activity on the
other two pillars of Annapolis. We do need to have improvements on the
ground. We do need to have the parties meeting their roadmap obligations.
That's why General Frazier is going to hold the trilateral. It's why it's
important that everybody look what they can do to support the Tony Blair
mission on the ground. Life needs to improve for the Palestinian people.
Life needs to improve, frankly, for Israelis who are under fire, as well in
cities like Ashkelon and Sderot. But all three pillars need to move in
simultaneously. And I believe that if the two pillars that we - that are not
just the political negotiation, but rather the conditions on the ground and
the roadmap obligations, if those move as well, that will help to bring some
robustness to a peace process that I think is going well, but by it's
necessity, cannot be in the newspapers every day with what the parties are
saying to one another.

Q: Madame Secretary, you were talking about the stability of the truce and
the need for the end of the violence. At the bottom line, do you accept the
Israeli current policy that as long as Hamas is continuing to fire rockets
into Israeli towns, Israel has the right and actually has to respond in a
military offensive against Hamas in Gaza? And another question for both of
you, Prime Minister Olmert declared a few times lately that you agreed,
Madame Secretary, with him that the issue of Jerusalem should not be
discussed now between Foreign Minister Livni and Abu Allah did you agree to
that position?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it is not for me to set the tactics for what Foreign
Minister Livni and Mr. Abu Ala do in their negotiations. I think these are
decisions that they will have to take and will have to make. The position of
the United States is that in order to get to a final status agreement, you
are going to have to have agreement on all the core issues. And obviously
that includes Jerusalem, how they choose to organize their negotiations.
Frankly, that's not my business. They have to deal with all the core issues.
Everyone knows that. So it's not my job to organize them.

As to the circumstances that have led to the situation in Gaza, I think I've
been very clear. Number one, it's clear what needs to be done. Attacks need
to stop on Israeli cities by these rockets. I believe and I think everybody
believes that Hamas can do that and they ought to do it. Secondly, I
understand and have said that Israeli has a right to defend itself. There
are, of course, concerns about the next day and do you still have a partner
and what has been the effect on the innocent citizens of Gaza who have the
misfortune to live under Hamas siege. And I've made very clear that we
continue to impress upon our Israeli
friends, both that element and the need to deal with the humanitarian
situation.

I just want to add one thing on Egypt because as Tzipi said, the Egyptians,
I do believe, know that it is in their interest also to have a Gaza that is
not a terrorist state, that is not a problem for the citizens of Gaza and
that's why I have some confidence that the parties will work very much in
coordination and cooperation to improve the situation in Gaza. And so David
Welch is going there to see what can be done to help. But there are also
contacts directly between the Israelis and the Egyptians.

FOREIGN MINISTER LIVNI: According to the Annapolis understanding, Israel and
the Palestinians decided to address all the core issues. In our first
meeting, Abu Ala and myself decided that we will address the issues
according to the order that we decide upon. We decided also that unless
everything is concluded, nothing is concluded, and we are not going to share
with the public or the press any details of our discussions. I would like to
say also clearly that the prime minister and myself are working together and
there is a full coordination on these issues between us. I know that this
can lead to some frustration when we don't share with the press all the
details of the negotiations, because everybody expect some news. Sorry, but
the fact that we don't respond to this kind of question - it's not a yes or
a no and I will not answer questions relating to borders or other issues.
Thank you.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.