 |
 |
 |
|
|
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni considered the rising star of Israeli politics. (AP)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Associated Press June 12, 2006 |
|
| |
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said her country wants to sit down with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but insisted it's "not realistic" to pursue a final peace deal with him as long as Hamas militants who control the Palestinian Cabinet and parliament refuse to moderate.
In a wide-ranging interview Sunday with The Associated Press, Livni, considered the rising star of Israeli politics, sought to allay international concerns that Israel plans to impose a final border on the Palestinians.
"The message is not unilateralism, it's not the Israeli government ideology. We prefer firstly to find a partner on the Palestinian side," she said.
Livni, who also serves as Israel's vice premier, said that a document currently being debated among Palestinians as a way out of a crippling international aid boycott could lead to positive results. However, the document, which implicitly recognizes the Jewish state by calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, falls short of international demands for Hamas to moderate its stance, Livni said.
"Maybe as a process it can lead to something better. But yet when it comes to the document itself, it doesn't send a message of historical reconciliation," she said.
On Sunday, the Hamas prisoner who helped draft the document withdrew his name from it, deepening Palestinian divisions ahead of a referendum on the plan. The move came amid rapidly escalating tensions between Israel and the Hamas-led government following Israel's assassination of a top militant and the death of eight Gaza beachgoers in an explosion Palestinians blamed on Israel.
Livni expressed regret over the loss of innocent life, but said it was necessary to wait for the results of an Israeli investigation into the explosion, suggesting it may not have been caused by Israel.
The incident has inflamed Palestinian passions, with a 16-month-old cease-fire largely unraveling over the weekend amid a fresh round of Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes.
Livni said international pressure is necessary to keep Hamas from pursuing a violent path.
"The only reason right now for the Hamas to try and send a more moderate message is the pressure from the international community," she said. "It is important that the international community will continue with this pressure on the government."
She declined to share Israel's assessment about what Hamas is likely to do.
Livni, who travels to Strasbourg, France on Monday to meet with European foreign ministers, urged the international community to "continue with this pressure on the (Hamas-led) government" while at the same time funneling humanitarian aid to ordinary Palestinians.
The aid boycott imposed after Hamas' rise to power in January parliamentary elections has badly disrupted life in the West Bank and Gaza. The government is unable to pay 165,000 public-sector employees, whose salaries form the backbone of the aid-dependent economy.
Livni, 47, is considered the second most powerful player on Israel's male-dominated political scene. The daughter of a right-wing Zionist underground fighter, she has become a champion of Israel's planned withdrawal from much of the West Bank.
A lawyer and former Mossad spy agency recruit, Livni defended Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to draw Israel's borders in the next four years, with or without a peace accord with the Palestinians.
"We believe that time is working against us," she said. "We believe that stagnation shouldn't be an Israeli government policy."
In the face of growing U.S. and European pressure, Israeli officials in recent weeks have backed off talk of imposing "final borders" on the Palestinians, who see great danger in Israeli unilateralism.
Olmert's vision of a two-state solution includes withdrawing from most of the West Bank but also annexation of large Jewish settlement blocs and continued Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan River Valley and the Old City of Jerusalem -- areas the Palestinians claim for their future state.
On Sunday, Livni insisted that Israel's West Bank plans are "only the beginning of a process" that should involve negotiations and close consultations with the international community.
While calling talks on a final peace deal "not realistic" with an unrepentant Hamas in power, Livni said Israel wants to deal with Abbas, the moderate Palestinian president elected separately last year who is now vying for power against Hamas.
"We will speak with Abbas because we believe that he's important and maybe there's a chance to promote a process with him," Livni said.
Olmert is expected to meet with Abbas in the coming weeks.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
