Olmert and Livni Oppose Rice Initiative for UN Security Council Resolution
Dr. Aaron Lerner IMRA 13 November 2008

Israel Television Channel One Correspondent Ayala Chason reported on the
evening Mabat News program that PM Olmert and FM Livni both oppose plans by
U.S. Secretary of State Rice to pass a UN Security Council Resolution that
would, among other things, call for the establishment of a Palestinian
state.

Rice told Olmert and Livni of her plans during her recent visit to Israel.

Chason noted that Israel sees this move by Rice as much a matter of her
wanting to end her career as Secretary of State with something to show as a
move to promote the peace process. Among other reasons for opposing the
initiative, Israel is concerned that the wording of such a resolution would
ultimately be slanted against Israel's interests in order to pass.

According to Chason, Rice warned Olmert and Livni that a UNSC Resolution
would help push for a two state solution and that otherwise there may be a
shift towards a "one state solution".

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Livni: No dramatic US intervention needed in peace talks
In NY, foreign minister says president-elect Obama should support peace
process with Palestinians according to set guidelines. 'You don't need to do
anything dramatic about it, situation is calm,' she tells new
administration; also says goodbye to Bush, thanks him for initiating
dialogue after years of terror
Yitzhak Benhorin YNET, Reuters Published: 11.13.08, 20:02 / Israel News
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3622815,00.html

WASHINGTON - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday that Israel did not
need any "dramatic" intervention in the peace process from US
president-elect Barack Obama when he takes office in January. She and
President Shimon Peres also took their leave of outgoing US President George
W. Bush.

Livni told Jewish leaders in New York the international community should
limit itself to backing the talks according to parameters set out at the
Annapolis Peace Conference nearly a year ago.

Livni said she welcomed the outcome of a meeting she attended last weekend
in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with the Quartet and Arab and Palestinian
leaders.

She said she had told them: "We don't ask you to intervene. Please, this is
bilateral. We don't want you to try to bridge gaps between us. Don't put new
ideas on the table.

"We know what we are doing, we are responsible enough. We need your help
just in supporting the process according to the parameters and the
provisions we all set between us."

As leader of the Kadima party, Livni was unable to form a coalition
government last month, but she could become prime minister after the
election. She said Obama's top priority would be to address the financial
crisis in the United States.

She said that while there were expectations from Obama on the Middle East,
her message to the new administration was: "You don't need now to do
anything dramatic about it. The situation is calm. We have these peace
talks."

Addressing a meeting of the UJA-Federation of New York, she said the United
States was a friend but that Israel was "not a state that puts its problem
on the American table the day after the new administration" takes office.

Livni said the only way for Israel to live as a democratic Jewish state in
peace and security was to give up some of its land for a Palestinian state,
in return for Palestinians dropping their insistence on the right of return
of refugees.

She said the answer to the refugee issue was not to allow a return to
Israel, "not even to one of them."

"I'm willing to make this historical reconciliation as long as I know that
the creation of a Palestinian state is the answer to their own national
aspiration," she said.

"And if there is a problem of refugees that left in 1948, this is not an
Israeli problem any more."

Saying goodbye to Bush
Livni was in New York to attend a high-level UN General Assembly meeting on
dialogue between different religions on the initiative of Saudi King
Abdullah.

She said King Abdullah had taken a "courageous" step in calling the meeting,
which indicated a recognition that the enemy of Arab states was not Israel
but extremism.

US President George Bush also spoke during the conference, and after he had
finished he took his leave of President Peres, who was in attendance. Bush
then hugged Livni, thanking her for cooperating in the Palestinian peace
talks.

"Israel thanks you," Livni told Bush. No one can take from you what you gave
to us, she said. Livni said it was important to remember that the president
was leaving behind a peace process he had initiated after years of terror.

"The whole world should know this," she said to the president deemed by many
to be the least popular in US history. You stood firm before terror and
extremists and returned the moderate Palestinian factions to the right
course with Israel, she told him.