BICOM

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel’s negotiating team in peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA), said yesterday that a peace agreement would significantly bolster Israel’s security.

Peace talks resumed in late July and the two sides have met on thirteen occasions since then. Details of the negotiations have not been made public, but Livni commented yesterday during a World Jewish Congress conference in Jerusalem, that talks are underway “not as a favour to Europe or to the United States of America. It is our own interest.”

Livni stated, “when there is no peace process, there is no legitimacy to act in order to keep Israel’s security,” adding, “It’s clear to me as a negotiator that any agreement should and would give an answer to our security concerns.” Livni also said that “stalemate can lead to a Palestinian state that would be forced on us – not as the outcome of negotiations that represent the Israeli interest.”

At the same conference, Knesset member Isaac Herzog, who will challenge for the Labour Party leadership next month, said there are many creative options for making a final-status agreement a reality. He spoke in favour of West Bank land swaps which would see Israel retain control of the Gush Etzion and Maaleh Adumim settlement blocs. Regarding Jerusalem, Herzog argued that the municipality could remain united even if sovereignty were split in the city, commenting: “We have to be innovative here, provided that the holy sites are under Israeli sovereignty.”

Meanwhile, Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett also spoke and opposed the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, although he backed the PA to continue overseeing Palestinian civilian affairs. He said, “If we today declared a [Palestinian] state there [in the West Bank] it would be… a failed and hostile state.”