Posted on 07/30/2014 5:13:47 PM PDT by SJackson
Justice Minister tells US secretary of state that his one week truce proposal would strengthen extremists in region.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) told US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday that his proposal for a week long cease-fire of Israel's Gaza campaign was "completely unacceptable" and that it "would have strengthened extremists in the region."
The justice minister told Israel Radio on Sunday that over the course of the day on Friday, Kerry's proposal had improved.
By Friday afternoon, just before Shabbat, the security cabinet unanimously rejected Kerry's proposal which the ministers believed did not sufficiently ensure either continued Israeli activity against the Gaza terror tunnels or dismantling the rocket infrastructure, while giving Hamas significant concessions regarding lifting the blockade around the coastal enclave.
While Kerry said during a Cairo press conference Friday afternoon that the proposal was based on a previous Egyptian cease-fire agreement, Israeli officials said that included too many elements of a Qatari and Turkish proposal, which leaned more favorably toward Hamas.
On Saturday, Kerry flew to Paris to continue the ceasefire talks with his Qatari and Turkish counterparts, as well as with the German, French, British and Italian foreign ministers.
At a press conference before leaving for Washington in the evening he said that while the Palestinians “need to live with dignity” and “with goods that can come in and out,” at the same time “Israelis need to live free from rockets and from tunnels that threaten them, and every conversation we’ve had embraces a discussion about these competing interests that are real for both.”
The tunnels, Kerry said, “have to be dealt with. We understand that; we’re working at that. By the same token, the Palestinians can’t have a cease-fire in which they think the status quo is going to stay and they’re not going to have the ability to be able to begin to live and breathe more freely and move within the crossings and begin to have goods and services that come in from outside.”
On Saturday Israel agreed to a 12 hour humanitarian cease-fire that began at 8 a.m. At midnight, Israel agreed to a UN request for an additional humanitarian truce of 24 hours to end at Sunday at midnight, but after rocket attacks from Gaza on Sunday morning Israel resumed its offensive.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Kerry can't even get support from the left. Time for a vacation.
Livni is a “moderate”
Since you included th “ “, OK. But with Peres gone, who’s left on the left? If you look at Hatnuah’s and Livni’s domestic agenda, gay rights, gay marriage, environmentalism of the radical variety, I’m not sure they’re moderate.
She is the only one this side of Peace Now that might have even taken him seriously. Dog won’t hunt, boy.
Elections matter. The Left has had power in the United States for five years. It controls State, the US military and security forces and has placed or replaced key personnel with ideologues and commissars. It is implementing its world view without apology. Most American allies and Americans themselves do not recognize and understand the breath and significance of the change. Israel does and it is clear that they must deal with a new and evolving strategic reality. Just the way it is.
Why should Israel cease fire? They have only killed 1200 and wounded 7000 including 150 in a UN hospital today. Last count in Israel after everything was 3 civilians wounded. Why stop? Those arabs need to flee. Opps — where?
Israel should cease fire - after they've destroyed Hamas' ability to wage war.
The Yalta beaches are lovely this time of year . . . oh, wait, you and your boss let Vlad steal that from Ukraine.
Is the Likud moderate?
Free abortion on demand and all that
I agree!
But the US has this little immigration program....we’d accept the poor souls for sure, unless Israel wipes them out.
Hard to use US terms when there are so many parties, not 2, I’d call Likud moderate to conservative I suppose. Health care is essentially free, so I presume abortion is free as well to those who meet the requirements. I’m not really aware of Likud wanting to loosen the restrictions on abortion. I represented Hatnuah/Livni as liberal since liberal social issues and “generous” negotiations with the palestinians were the reason for their creation out of the ashes of Kadima.
They shouldn’t. All UN military facilities should be neutralized. Calling them schools, or in the case of Hamas headquarters a hospital doesn’t make them so. Though it does make the terrorists war criminals. Not that that matters.
Meanwhile, there are huge problems in Syria and Iraq with the emergence of a terror threat that makes Al Qaeda look almost peaceful. And they have oil now. Then there is Iran, patiently building their bomb while diplomacy goes nowhere. China is trying to steal islands and oil from its neighbors and our allies.
But Kerry has to personally try to resolve this unsolvable problem that our ally has in hand? What, is it intolerable when Jews defend themselves and win???
It’s a bid puzzling. I suspect Israel is a long term issue for Obama, and he thought he saw an opportunity. Particularly since his “peace” negotiations have been such an obvious failure.
Obama's "former" church is a Sabeel church. That's where he got his perspective on Israel.
If 0bama could somehow structure something (he’s smarter than they are, you know) which led to the complete destruction of Israel, he would be the hero of the Arab world for at least two weeks. That shiny object entices him.
There hasn’t been a shining light (or even a dim bulb) in this Administration in foreign policy since day one with Benghazi Clinton. The only thing consistent about this Administration is its consistent incompetence and string of consecutive failures.
Fortunately, Nobama has proved to the world he is an utterly incompetent negotiator, mainly because he doesn’t understand the concept of compromise. So, is he clever enough to entice Israel into a deal that could lead to its destruction? No chance.
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