(Photo: Wikimedia)
JERUSALEM (Press Release)–MK Tzipi Livni, Co-Chair of the Zionist Camp party addressed the Conference of Presidents Major Jewish Organizations annual Leadership Mission to Israel on Thursday, Feb. 19. In light of the upcoming elections in Israel, MK Livni discussed the platform of her Zionist Camp party, which she co-chairs with Yitzhak Herzog.
She said that Israelis need to decide between two visions, Greater Israel, one country where Palestinians will not have full rights, or a two-state solution. A two-state solution, she said, is in the interest of Israel, “it is not a gift to the PA or the US President.”
The Zionist Camp leader expressed her view that, “We will never give up Jerusalem, we will keep the settlement blocs and there is no right of return for Palestinian refugees.”
The former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Justice reminded the American leaders that she uprooted Jews from their homes in Gush Katif and said it was the “toughest and most difficult decision” of her life. But she posed the question, “Is there anyone who wants to replant Israelis in Gush Katif again?” Whoever would want to do so, she said, would never want any kind of agreement with the Palestinians.
On Iran she said that her party agrees with Prime Minister Netanyahu that Iran should not become a nuclear weapons state and that no deal is better than a bad deal. However, she disagreed with the way that the Prime Minister was dealing with the issue, particularly the public differences with the US administration.
MK Livni criticized the Prime Minister’s upcoming trip to Congress, “Do you really think after six years that Obama doesn’t know what Bibi thinks? If a foreign leader came to Israel to give a speech to the Knesset and would not work through the Prime Minister, even if it were Bibi, I would not support it. If Obama came to Israel and gave a great speech to the Knesset, would it change Bennett’s mind? Bibi does not need to make this speech. It is nothing new. I have my own criticisms of the US administration, Livni said, but I keep them quiet and do not make them public.”
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Later on Thursday, Zionist Camp chairman Issac Herzog told the 100-strong delegation that “Bibi has failed. His numbers are moving down in the polls and his lies are increasing.” He called on the Prime Minister to “go home.”
Herzog noted that the US support for Israel was always strategic and never political. He said that Israel was never a partisan issue between Republicans and Democrats and he added that Israel’s chances to be in on the negotiations with Iran are being hampered because Israel needs access to information. It is for that reason, he said, that he is challenging the Prime Minister’s speech to Congress. “Tzipi Livni and I know how to tilt the balance to align the international community behind Israel,” he continued.
Responding to pointed questions from Conference leaders, Herzog maintained that to say that we have already lost the battle with the US and P5+1 on Iran is counterproductive. He said that all those criticizing the deal have no basis on which to make such remarks. “Are they in the negotiations room?” he asked.
Regarding a Palestinian state, Herzog said that his party is not “rushing to a solution.” He said he would initiate a process with Arab leaders including Jordan and Egypt. On the settlements he said, “We will freeze construction outside the settlement blocs and get West Bank blocs agreed upon by the international community.”
Regarding Jerusalem, he said it will always be united, but that under Prime Minister Netanyahu’s policies Jerusalem has already been divided by walls and he is not sure that can be reversed.
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Earlier in the week, the delegation from the Conference of Presidents met with Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin.
After warmly welcoming the group the President spoke movingly of “the tragedy we are living with our neighbors.” He emphatically stated that “we are not at war with Islam.” However, he said, in the context of growing violent anti-Semitic incidents, “when Jews are attacked in the world, they are being attacked because Israel is a Jewish state. We need to explain to the world that Judaism in not only a religion, it is the idea of the Jewish people as a nation in its homeland. Out of a populations of 9 million people in Israel, 1.5 million are Muslim Arabs. It is our responsibility that Israel remains Jewish and democratic. The demographic and geographic situation won’t change between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. It is our destiny to live together in prosperity and our Muslim neighbors need to understand that the Jewish people have returned to their homeland.”
On Israel’s foreign relations, the President stated that the first second and third important principles are relations with America.
President Rivlin invited Israeli Arabs and Orthodox Jews to present projects that work to build bridge in Israeli society. The participants included Mr. Adel Badir, Adv., Mayor of Kfar Kassem; Dr Samir Kassem, Head of the Department of Medicine in Carmel Hospital, Haifa, and Co-Founder of the Collective Impact Initiative; Yitzhak Crombie and Racheli Ginat, Co-Founders, Ultra-Orthodox High Tech Forum.
Mayor Badir described his hill-top Israeli Arab city located 12 miles east of Tel Aviv, on the southern portion of the “Little Triangle” of Arab-Israeli towns and villages. The town became notorious for the Kafr Qasim massacre, in which Israeli Border Police killed 49 civilians on October 29, 1956. On October 26, 2014 President Rivlin, attended the Memorial Ceremony to mark the 58th anniversary of the killings. Mayor Badir said he hoped the President’s attendance at the ceremony would mark a turning point for better relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis. The Mayor spoke of the need for increased resources to improve education in his city.
Dr. Kessem began the Collective Impact Initiative to help advance Arab employment into higher paying professional positions.
Yitzhak Crombie and Racheli Ginat founded the Ultra-Orthodox High-Tech Forum to help encourage ultra-Orthodox integration in the high-tech industry.
COP Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein acknowledged President’ Rivlin’s outreach to Israel’s Arab citizens and invited the speakers to the US to meet with leaders there.
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Preceding provided by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.