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Netanyahu and his wife Sara: shifting the focus to matters close to home
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| By Israel Insider staff March 26, 2008 |
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Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu has not been invited to meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her upcoming trip to Israel, sources close to Netanyahu said Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Rice is set to with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and her dear confidante, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, but she apparently will not find time to meet with the head of the opposition, typically part of the standard protocol when diplomats visit Israel.
Netanyahu's associates said they were not surprised or upset by the snub, "because her visit was intended to promote the Annapolis process that Rice initiated and Netanyahu opposes. They emphasized that he had better relations with other American leaders such as Vice President Dick Cheney, with whom he met on Sunday," the Post reported.
"She apparently doesn't want to hear what he has to say," a source close to Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu had to actively lobby to get ear-time with US President George W. Bush when he came to Israel in January. The Likud leader was originally not on Bush's agenda but he was added after the snub made headlines. In the end, the two men met for twice the time allocated in the schedule.
Netanyahu, trying to shift the public agenda away from his overseas travel expenses, visited the controversial E-1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim. He called on Olmert to start building there immediately despite fierce American opposition. Building plans for the area were approved during Netanyahu's term as prime minister but have been since frozen due to intense pressure from the US.
"All of Israel has been built, not because of the approval of the Arabs and the international community, but despite their opposition," Netanyahu told reporters atop a dusty hilltop. "We need the kind of leadership that would insist on this."
Netanyahu said it was unjust that Ma'aleh Adumim's expansion was being prevented while illegal Arab building went unchecked. He called again for the Shas party to leave the government after Livni admitted on Channel 2 Friday night that Jerusalem's fate was in fact being negotiated, despite Olmert's claims to the contrary.
"If the government continues, not only will Jerusalem be encircled by a ring of adversarial Arabs and eventually Hamas, Jerusalem itself will be divided," Netanyahu said. "My friends in Shas who say they want to save Jerusalem must leave the government immediately."
A Shas spokesman said in response that they received reassurances from Livni that Jerusalem was not being negotiated and that if the opposite were true, the party would leave the government, the Post reported. Shas has been saying that for months, despite evidence to the contrary.
Ma'aleh Adumim mayor Benny Kashriel said he would start a campaign after Pessah to pressure the government to build in E-1. He said he would move his office to the area as part of the campaign. |
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