Yair Lapid and Tsippi Livni are senior members of the Netanyahu coalition. They aren't in some minor Leftist opposition party. Lapid is Finance Minister and Livni is "Minister for Peace Negotiations," a specially tailored ministry for her to push for "peace" sic.
Livni called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to "prove that he is a partner" for peace.So I guess she'd be without a job if she admitted the truth.
"We are in a crisis," she said. "What happened in the last week will need to be repaired." (Jerusalem Post)
Livni reminds me of Cinderella's ugly stepsister trying to fit her big fat foot into the glass slipper.
Too bad this isn't a joke!
No matter how hard Livni and the Americans try, they can never really turn Mahmoud Abbas into a real peace partner.
6 comments:
This is her "signature" issue - Hatnua would be nowhere without the peace issue.
Unfortunately for her, the Arabs won't cooperate with her in turning her political career around. Yes - there is a crisis.
But its really her personal crisis in refusing to face reality and admitting the peace process in fact is stone cold dead.
Good luck in reviving it. Israel can't do it alone.
Norman, true. And unfortunately, Bibi was so desperate to start the coalition ball rolling he made this dangerous contract with Livni, davka, to give her too much authority to "make peace" sic.
"Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, nearing 80, has proved time and again in the last two decades that he will never put pen to paper on an accord for ending the dispute with Israel. If he really wanted an independent Palestinian state, he could at any time have followed the path to self-determination chosen by David Ben Gurion, when he declared Israeli statehood on May 14, 1948 in Tel Aviv. Had Abbas (known mostly as Abu Mazen) formally convened an assembly of Palestinian community and institutional leaders at the Palestinian parliament building in Ramallah and proclaimed statehood, there would have been very little Israel could have done.
But that is not his way and never has been, because for him Palestinian independence is no more than an abstract slogan which must never come to earth.
In 1995, Abbas and the dovish Israeli politician Yossi Beilin jointly drafted a document, which later carried their names, offering a formula for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli dispute – except that he never signed it. He couldn’t bring himself to this commitment, because it conflicted with his fundamental principles and put his political survival at risk.
Today, too, the rise of a Palestinian state would end Abbas’s career as Palestinian leader. He holds sway over the six West Bank towns which passed to Palestinian Authority control without a legal mandate. The last Palestinian elections in 2006 gave his Fatah party only 48 seats compared with 76 netted by the rival Hamas.
Israel, the United States and Europe therefore respect as their legitimate Palestinian partner for peace negotiations a figure who is unelected and whose rule is buttressed by seven Palestinian security battalions, which America and Europe agreed to bankroll to the tune of $2 billion, after the cutoff of Arab aid. Another three battalions are due to be added to the force.
So Abu Mazen keeps up the masquerade of striving for Palestinian independence and staying in the talking shop for two purposes: It keeps him in power by dint of international recognition, and donations continue to roll in to feed his corrupt regime and cover the payroll of his security force.
Not much is left to trickle down to the ordinary Palestinian family.
To buy a small measure of street credibility, Abbas must show the people that he is the only leader able to force Israel to release Palestinians from long prison sentences. He achieves this by making this his price for not walking away from the table
So long as the money flows in and Palestinians are sprung from Israeli jails, no voices are raised in circles that count in Ramallah against the corrupt practices eating away at the regime."
More here.
Yitz, thanks.
Why haven't you expanded this into a blog post?
Batya, I was merely quoting the DEBKA article. I don't have time for a full post now...but thanks!
Ok Yitz. Any time, mi blog es suya.
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