FM: Palestinians will not see any more Israeli compromises

Lieberman says that Israel will not make any more concessions to Palestinians in peace talks; says Hamas must be taken down.

By LAHAV HARKOV, MICHAEL OMER-MAN, JPOST.COM ST
Foreign Minsiter Avigdor Lieberman 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Uriel Sinai)
Foreign Minsiter Avigdor Lieberman 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Uriel Sinai)
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at an Israel Beiteinu faction meeting on Monday that Israel will not make any additional compromises or concessions to the Palestinians in peace talks.
“The ball is in the Palestinians’ court,” he quipped.
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Lieberman said that the current government took a number of clear steps in the two and a half years it has been in power. He also noted that Israel Beiteinu accepted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Bar- Ilan speech and that the government had agreed to the Quartet’s stance.
Unlike the Palestinians, whom Lieberman slammed for rejecting a recent set of Quartet parameters for restarting peace talks, Israel reacted immediately to the proposal and said it was ready for direct negotiations.
Lieberman added that the Palestinians waited until an excuse – continued construction in Gilo – presented itself days later and then refused to negotiate.
The foreign minister used this as an example of the many times in which he said the international community was not balanced in its examining of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The Palestinian leadership “spoke with former prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert without demanding a settlement freeze,” he said, asserting that the PA leaders should do the same with the current government.
Addressing the recent rocket fire from Gaza that killed one person, the foreign minister said that the only solution was to end Hamas’s rule over the strip.
“The goal of the State of Israel should be to take down the Hamas regime in Gaza,” he said.