Cabinet communique
PM Netanyahu: Israel aspires to achieve peace agreements with both the
Palestinians and Syria.
(Communicated by the Cabinet Secretariat)
At the weekly Cabinet meeting today (Sunday), 7 February 2010:

1. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following remarks at the start
of the meeting:

"Israel aspires to complete peace agreements with all of its neighbors. We
did this with Egypt and Jordan, and we aspire to achieve similar agreements
with both the Palestinians and Syria. Two principles dictate our approach
to peace negotiations with our neighbors:

First, we will conduct negotiations without preconditions. We do not accept
the idea that Israel must always make extraordinary concessions in advance
while the other side is exempt from making its own concessions. It is
negotiations that will bring about an agreement and we will not enter into
negotiations when everything is known in advance.

Second, at the end of the negotiations we need to maintain the State of
Israel's vital national interests, especially security. It is doubtful
whether any peace agreement that is unaccompanied by solid security
arrangements on the ground can last. We want peace that will last for years,
decades and generations and to this end, these components, especially
security, are essential.

I hope that we are before the resumption of the negotiations with the
Palestinians. We are open to the resumption of the process with the Syrians.
While involvement in the negotiations is important for us, it is less
important than the two abovementioned principles, in both the Palestinian
and the Syrian arenas."

Prime Minister Netanyahu also said that the Cabinet would establish a team
headed by National Economic Council Chairman Prof. Eugene Kandel to
formulate a national policy on reducing dependency on petroleum. Regarding
the development of alternatives to petroleum, the Prime Minister noted that
he had spoken on the issue with the heads of the German, Italian and Polish
governments, who showed great interest in cooperation to advance the issue.

Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that the Cabinet would be briefed on the
establishment of Israel's fifth medical school, in Safed, and noted that he
ascribed great importance to the idea because, "it would bring thousands of
people - doctors, technicians and scientists - to the Galilee and would spur
the revival of the area," as would the development of rapid transportation
lines.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also announced that the Cabinet would approve
support for organizations involved in encouraging immigration to Israel.

2. Prime Minister Netanyahu briefed the Cabinet on Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi's visit to Israel last week and said: "This visit was
important both for bilateral relations and for our relations with what I
will call 'quality countries' around the world. We have always known that
Israel has been limited in its ability to achieve numerical support in
various international forums. However, we know the key is hidden in the
ability to enlist main countries, which wield diplomatic, economic - and, in
certain stages, moral - influence. Therefore, the meetings - including the
ministerial meetings - that we hold with Germany and Italy and, in the
future, I hope, with Australia, Canada and Poland will form an increasingly
larger group of quality countries, with which we are strengthening
relations, including in a personal context. You will see, from the contacts
with ministers, that the ability to resolve issues between ministries is
facilitated by these meetings, which foster understanding about the State of
Israel's vital interests."

3. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz briefed the Cabinet on his recent visit
to Canada and the US. He noted that while in Canada, he met with several
Canadian ministers, including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, and added that
he discovered that there is great interest in expanding bilateral
cooperation in the high-tech and bio-tech fields.

Regarding his visit to the US, Finance Minister Steinitz noted that State of
Israel bonds were listed for regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Finance Minister Steinitz noted that he met with a large group of Israeli
scientists and lecturers, who reside in the US, and had asked them to return
home. Many of the latter replied that they were unable to do so due to a
lack of positions for them at academic institutions and in other frameworks.

4. Education Minister Gideon Saar and Negev and Galilee Development Minister
Silvan Shalom briefed the Cabinet on the Council for Higher Education's
decision that Bar-Ilan University would establish a medical school, Israel's
fifth, in Safed.

5. Pursuant to previous decisions, the Cabinet decided to bring forward the
date by which the debts of Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, and their
cooperative associations, to the World Zionist Organization Rural Settlement
Division would be forgiven forthwith.

6. The Cabinet decided to allocate various sums to organizations dealing in
encouraging immigration to Israel in 2010.

7. The Cabinet decided to establish a national effort to develop
technologies to reduce the global use of petroleum in transportation.