Israel Matzav

Livni trying to blame Netanyahu after all?

In an earlier post, I reported that Tzipi Livni was actually placing the blame for the 'peace talks' failure where it belonged - on 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen - and not on Prime Minister Netanyahu. Now, it seems Livni may have other ideas.

“There are those in this country who are disappointed that there is no partner [for peace] on the Palestinian side,” Livni, who heads the Israeli negotiating team, with the Palestinian Authority, said at a conference at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “The point is not to expose the other side’s face, but to reach an agreement with them.”

Hatnua party leader Livni, a dovish member of Netanyahu’s largely right-wing cabinet, was implying that, rather than pursue a peace agreement in earnest, some Israeli officials have been baiting the Palestinians so as to elicit responses that could be construed as rejectionist.

...

During her speech on Monday, Livni also directly addressed the Israeli right’s rejection of Palestinian aspirations to statehood. 

“I’ve heard in recent days various sources in Israel who said that Jews didn’t dream for 2,000 years in order to give away part of their land,” she said, referring to Jewish Home leader and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett’s criticism of the Netanyahu settlers-in-Palestine idea. ”They also didn’t dream of an isolated state that rules over others. There’s a price for arriving at an agreement, but the price of not arriving at an agreement is much higher.”

Peace negotiations are “something we need to do because I believe it’s the new vision of Zionism,” Livni said.

I don't think Livni needs to blame Netanyahu for the 'talks' failure in order to save her political career. Given that she survived her total failure at the end of the Second Lebanon War and her failed attempt at Annapolis to give the 'Palestinians' even more than they are being offered now, Livni's continued presence on the political scene is proof positive that the average Israeli voter and the Prime Ministers (who continue to take Livni into their governments) whom they elect have the vision of an ostrich and the memory of an amoeba. Unfortunately, we probably have not seen the last of Livni in government.

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Middle East peace process, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, Tzipi Livni

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:56 PM