Livni: Coalition members have 'collective responsibility' to support peace process

Regev says majority of Likud do not support two-state solution; Gal-On cautions not to get hopes too high.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Israelis, Palestinians meeting for resumption of talks 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas)
Israelis, Palestinians meeting for resumption of talks 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas)
Tzipi Livni, justice minister and Israel’s representative at the recently resumed peace talks in Washington, said on Wednesday that all coalition partners had an obligation to support the negotiations.
Speaking to Army Radio, Livni appeared to be directing her comments at Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett and former foreign minister and Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman after they inferred Israel’s negotiating partner Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is an anti-Semite.
“I know that there are partners in the coalition who are not interested in a two-state solution, but they have a collective responsibility, and as long as they are part of the coalition they must support negotiations.”
After Abbas said that no Israeli settlers or border forces could remain in a future Palestinian state and that Palestinians deem illegal all Jewish settlement building within the land occupied in the 1967 Six Day War, Bennett said: “The president of the Palestinian Authority said he doesn’t want to see any Israelis on his land. Bad things happen when good people are silent. Good people need to act.”
Likud MK Miri Regev told Israel Radio on Wednesday that there was no majority support in her faction for the idea of a two-state solution.
Meretz chief Zehava Gal-On, meanwhile, said that because of the opposition of many MKs and the power of the extreme Right, there should not be “exaggerated hope” for the success of the peace process.
The left-wing leader expressed some hope, however, that Netanyahu will use this “rare window of opportunity” to make peace, even if the price is the breakup of the current coalition government.
With regard to how the talks would be conducted, Livni said that all of the central issues at the peace talks with the Palestinians would be discussed concurrently.
“Some of the common theories before the negotiations began were that they [the Palestinians] would want to discuss only borders or that we would only wish to discuss security,” Livni told Army Radio.
Livni rejected that this is how the talks would be conducted.
“The goal is to end the conflict. It cannot be ended just by setting the border. We need to know what is happening on the other side of the border,” Livni said.
“The conflict and the demands cannot be ended if I only address some of the central issues,” she said.