Thursday, August 07, 2008

Tzipi Livni and the Temple Mount

From the transcript of an interview with FM Tzipi Livni on the negotiations with the Palestinians on the 'Evening News' program of the REKA (Immigrant Absorption) radio channel with Yosef Eitan:-

Eitan: If the subject of Jerusalem comes up in the negotiations, are we prepared to divide Jerusalem?

FM Livni: If there is one thing the negotiator should never do, in my opinion, it is to start giving, or dividing, or determining borders through the media. However, it is important to say something about Jerusalem in this context. I say this as someone who was born in Tel Aviv but believes that the existence of the State of Israel, and my existence in Tel Aviv begins first of all with the Temple Mount. This is true also on the historical-national level, in the connection of every Jew to the Land of Israel.

In the Oslo agreements, it was determined that Jerusalem was one of the issues on the table. We undertook to discuss this issue in the negotiations. But let's put aside the slogans of "If we don't divide Jerusalem, others will." There are places in Jerusalem that, in my opinion, relate not only to the history of the Jewish people, but also to the future of the Jewish people.

When I wrote Kadima's political platform, I wrote that the discussion on the borders would fall under the following categories:

The security of Israel
The holy places, and Jerusalem above all
The desire to leave the maximum number of Israelis in their homes. This relates to the settlement blocs.
These are the categories of all the negotiations, and I will not negotiate via the media for the simple reason that those on the opposite side take every Israeli concession, put it in their pockets and then expect more.

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