By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Shas chairman Eli Yishai asked Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Tuesday morning to end diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinians in the wake of Monday's terrorist attack in Dimona.
Livni, who heads Israel's negotiating team with the Palestinians, declined Yishai's request in a meeting between the two ministers at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.
She said that just as her Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qurei, did not cancel talks after reports of Israeli building in Har Homa, she could not cancel negotiations due to the attack.
Yishai visited Dimona shortly after the attack and called for breaking off all channels of dialogue with the Palestinians in protest.
Last week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave in to an ultimatum from Shas and announced that the Jerusalem issue would only be raised at the end of the negotiations.
Yishai sought additional reassurances in his meeting with Livni.According to Shas officials, Livni did not object to Yishai's condition, but Livni's associates declined to confirm this.
"The foreign minister meets regularly with Eli Yishai to update him about all the issues at hand," a Livni associate said.
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