BICOM

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel’s negotiating team in the current peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) yesterday said that the Labour Party should stop talking about supporting peace and join the government to help make it a reality.

Earlier this week, Labour Party leader Shelly Yachimovich repeated the pledge that she has made on several occasions that her party will be a “safety net” to support a peace deal if coalition members fail to support it. However, Yachimovich also said that Labour will not provide a ‘fig leaf’ for a “fake” peace process which is not a serious attempt to reach an agreement.

However, in an interview with Army Radio yesterday, Livni challenged Yachimovich on her qualified stance, saying “Opposition leader [Yachimovich] says she’ll only join the government once there’s an agreement or she thinks [talks are] serious enough. Well, it’s not enough to give a speech about peace… it’s important to implement it.” Livni contended that “To allow significant and dramatic decisions to be made in the future, there is a need for true and essential support within the government.” She said that “Labour should have been part of this coalition.”

Livni refused to divulge any substantive details regarding the current peace talks. However, she said “there is no question” that Palestinian prisoners will continue to be released as talks progress, calling it “part of our commitment.” Maariv suggested this week that talks reached an impasse recently over Palestinian opposition to Israel’s suggestion of maintaining a military presence in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank. Livni said that the Gaza disengagement of 2005 had resulted in the “traumatic experience” of subsequent attacks on Israel and that “We want to avoid that happening on another border.” Nabil Abu Rudaineh, spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that the PA will not accept “even a single Israeli soldier” in the Jordan Valley.