Netanyahu: Livni refused my offer for unity
By Mazal Mualem, Yair Ettinger and Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondents
Last update - 14:45 27/02/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067493.html

Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu failed to persuade his centrist
rival, Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni, to join him in a broad coalition
Friday, increasing the likelihood that the next government will be a narrow
alliance of right-wing and hard-line religious parties opposed to
substantial concessions for peace.

Netanyahu on Friday said that he offered Livni full partnership in the
government and two of three top ministerial posts, but that Livni had
refused his offer for unity.

"It is clear that unity requires compromise," said Netanyahu after his
coalition talks with Livni ended without agreement on Friday. "I was
prepared to go a very long way toward achieving unity."

Netanyahu said he offered Livni full partnership in formulating the
fundamental guidelines and direction of the new government, full equality in
the distribution of ministerial portfolios between Likud and Kadima and two
of the three top cabinet posts.

Netanyahu also said he told Livni he plans to advance the peace process with
the Palestinians, to institute reform in the government and also to try and
resolve matters of civil marriage and conversion.

Livni, however, said following the meeting that the points of contention
between the two were still too large to enable her Kadima party to join a
broad government under Netanyahu's leadership.

"The meeting ended without agreement on issues that I believe to be
fundamental for joining this government," she said.

Sources in the parties have said neither side believes a unity government of
Likud and Kadima is likely.

Nonetheless, Netanyahu wanted to show that he tried every option to
compromise with Livni with generous, unprecedented offers, so that Livni
appears at fault for any failure to create a unity government.

Likud negotiators, meanwhile, continue to meet with potential ultra-Orthodox
and right-wing coalition partners and have received lists of demands from
several parties.

"Today we will find out if Livni is a unity refusenik," a Likud source said
ahead of Friday's meeting between the two party leaders.

Now that this meeting has ended without results, Netanyahu is expected
accelerate coalition talks on Sunday with right-wing and ultra-Orthodox
parties, aimed at presenting a narrow right-wing government within three
weeks.

Livni associates said prior to the Friday meeting that they did not believe
unity talks are likely. They said Livni has only become more convinced that
it is better to go into opposition than to give up on the promises she made
to voters. This is particularly true as she sees Netanyahu making deals with
65 right-wing lawmakers.

Livni was expected, as she did in a meeting Sunday, to demand that Netanyahu
announce his support for a two-state solution and for an outline for
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations reached at the 2007 Annapolis Conference.

Netanyahu and his associates had hoped in recent days that Kadima cabinet
ministers like Shaul Mofaz, Dalia Itzik and Ze'ev Boim, who support a
national unity government with Likud, would foment mutiny in the party. But
there have been no overt moves against Livni and she enjoys at least the
appearance of party unity.

Mofaz is holding meetings with ministers and Knesset members and discussing
what he considers the mistake of sitting in opposition without seriously
examining Likud's proposals. "The differences can be bridged. Negotiation
teams should be formed," he said in a meeting.

However, Livni associates say that "the whole party is behind her. Talk here
and there means nothing." Party surveys indicate that most Kadima voters are
opposed to national unity.

Meanwhile, in the ultra-Orthodox camp, Shas and United Torah Judaism tried
to form a "Haredi bloc," but with the start of coalition talks this week the
two parties began battling each other. In talks with Likud negotiators this
week, both parties demanded the housing portfolio, which the ultra-Orthodox
parties seek due to their constituency's housing shortage.

Both parties' rabbinical leaderships ordered their lawmakers this week to
put housing at the top of the agenda and demand cabinet decisions on perks
for homebuyers and the establishment of an ultra-Orthodox city. Shas has
demanded and expanded housing portfolio that would include the Israel Lands
Authority.

UTJ chairman Yaakov Litzman told Haaretz after meeting Likud representatives
that "there are serious problems" in the coalition talks. He mentioned
competition from Shas for the Housing Ministry.

Likud negotiator Gideon Sa'ar Thursday told Habayit Hayehudi representatives
that "the chokehold created by the outgoing government on the Jewish
settlement of Judea and Samaria must be released and construction there
thawed."

Habayit Hayehudi has also demanded that Israel not withdraw from the Golan
Heights in any peace agreement and that no Palestinian state be established.
The party also seeks increased Judaism studies in public schools and a
promise that no changes be made to the state-religion status quo without the
agreement of all coalition partners. The party demanded the education
portfolio and a deputy minister in either the interior, social affairs or
finance ministries.

Likud representatives also met with members of National Union; its chairman
Ya'akov Katz said there was a positive atmosphere in the meeting. He said
that in just a few weeks there will be a government that is "more Israeli,
more Jewish, more Zionist and different in its directives than the present
government."

National Union wants illegal West Bank outposts declared legal and
permission for construction in the territories. The party is also opposed to
a withdrawal from the Golan Heights or a Palestinian state.