RAMALLAH: Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu promised the rightist National Union (NU) party that the guidelines of the coalition he is forging will not refer to a Palestinian state, the road map peace plan or the Annapolis diplomatic process, a report said yesteray.
The daily Jerusalem Post said that the NU sought assurances from Likud chairman that there would be no hint of a Palestinian state in the guidelines, in return for the party’s endorsement of him in its meeting with President Shimon Peres on Thursday before he tasked Netanyahu with forming a government.
Knesset Member Arye Eldad of NU told the Post that “Netanyahu didn’t say in his own words that a Palestinian state would not be mentioned in the guidelines, but after we asked for that, he replied that we will be able to live with the coalition guidelines.” The revelation of the promise came a day after Netanyahu and Kadima cheif Tzipi Livni failed to come to agreement on various issues that would allow for the formation of a national unity government.
Livni said after the meeting that there are still “profound differences” between the two parties’ positions on the peace process and talks with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu failed to persuade other top rival, Labour party leader and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, also to join his Cabinet, increasing the chances of a right-wing Israeli coalition that is likely to put the brakes on the sputtering Middle East peace process. Barak emerged from a meeting with Netanyahu yesterday still intent on taking Labor to the opposition benches.
The NU plans to demand in coalition talks with Likud that the government allow construction in all West Bank Jewish settlements where it is now effectively frozen, and to legalize most illegal settlement outposts. Specifically, the party will demand the legalization of any outpost “located on land that does not pose a substantive obstacle”, meaning, primarily, any outpost not located on private Palestinian land.
It also will ask for the incoming government to cancel four military orders that it says discriminates against Jewish settlers; abolish the Justice Ministry’s task force on enforcing the law against Jewish settlers; revive and provide adequate funding for the Jewish Agency’s settlement division, which used to carry out the lion’s share of construction in the Palestinian territories; enact legislation that would enable West Bank lands to be restored to their prestate Jewish owners; increase funding for settlement security; and restore “national priority” status, which confers tax breaks and other economic benefits, to various West Bank settlements.
