BICOM

Israeli government ministers yesterday set out their positions on a potential peace accord in the wake of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest diplomatic efforts.

Kerry discussed a framework for final status talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during a regional visit last weekend. It is thought that under such a plan, Israel would be required to accept the pre-1967 borders plus land swaps as the basis for final borders, while the Palestinians would have to recognise Israel as a Jewish State and drop the demand for Palestinian refugees to return to Israel.

Speaking at Tel Aviv University yesterday, Jewish Home leader and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said, “We will not play word games anymore. The 1967 lines means the division of Jerusalem. We will never agree to give up a united Jerusalem… We will not accept an agreement based on the 1967 lines. We will not beg for land swaps.” Bennett warned “We will not sit in a government” which makes “dangerous decisions” due to international pressure.

Later in the day, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel’s peace negotiations spoke at the Hebrew University. Alluding to Bennett, she criticised “the speech of another minister in the government, which sounded patriotic” but was in fact an argument which may come “at the price of a Jewish democratic state.” Livni accused Bennett and others of playing a political game to curry favour within their parties, at the expense of the public interest. She said “this is a case where a minority imposes its opinion on the majority for decades.”

Finance Minister and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid also waded in, telling Army Radio that he opposes Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s suggestion of land swaps, potentially uprooting people from their homes. Lapid said that such an arrangement would harm Israel’s international relations.

Meanwhile, Kerry is set to return to the region on Monday after meeting with a senior Arab League delegation in Paris on Sunday. Makor Rishon reports that Kerry requested the meeting to update the Arab League on his peace efforts.