Comments (0)Netanyahu Calls on Opposition for Support
June 29, 2009Jerusalem
JTA Wire Service
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the Israeli opposition to back the principles for a Palestinian state that he laid out in his recent policy speech.
Netanyahu made the call at the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, reminding the main opposition Kadima Party and parties further to the left that the principles include Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, a demilitarized Palestinian state, no right of return of Palestinian refugees to Israel, international guarantees for Israel’s defense and an official end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The principles, Netanyahu said, “express a wide consensus within the Israeli public. I call on the opposition to back them. A responsible opposition lends its support, and I expect the members of the opposition to stand behind them.”
While Netanyahu did not address the issue of natural growth in settlements, Kadima lawmaker Otniel Schneller called on the opposition lawmakers to support Netanyahu and “the government’s struggle with the Americans and the world over the matter of natural growth.”
Meanwhile, Kadima’s No. 2 lawmaker, Shaul Mofaz, on Sunday called on Kadima chair Tzipi Livni to join the unity government now that it has accepted the principle of two states for two people.
Talansky Returns to Israel for Testimony
American businessman Morris Talansky returned to Israel for cross-examination in a bribery case against Ehud Olmert.
Talansky is the key witness in an investigation against the former prime minister in which he allegedly received envelopes over several years containing $150,000 in cash and checks.
Talansky was cross-examined Sunday in Jerusalem District Court. His testimony will continue on Monday.
Olmert’s lawyer asked the court to strike Talansky’s testimony, saying it lacked credibility.
Olmert resigned over the cash envelopes affair, as well as several other scandals.
Arrests, Injuries as Haredim Protest Lot’s Opening
At least 28 fervently Orthodox protesters were arrested during riots over the Sabbath opening of a Jerusalem parking lot.
A 6-year-old boy, four police officers and a 20-year-old haredi man were wounded in the continuing protests Saturday as the demonstrators threw rotten fruit, rocks and soiled diapers at police.
At least 1,000 counter-demonstrators who support Mayor Nir Barkat’s decision to open the lot to Saturday visitors to Jerusalem protested nearby.
Violent protests spread to several of Jerusalem’s fervently Orthodox neighborhoods. After the end of the Sabbath, protesters set fire to garbage Dumpsters.
On Thursday, the Jerusalem District Court agreed to a request by Jerusalem’s municipality to keep the city-run Safra parking garage closed on the Sabbath and instead open the nearby, privately owned Karta parking lot, which is in receivership.
Both parking lots are near the Old City’s Jaffa Gate, and fervently Orthodox Jews have objected to the opening of the lots on the Sabbath.
Thousands of fervently Orthodox Jerusalemites also turned out for a protest on Friday night despite the ruling, which some cast as a compromise because it allowed the city-owned lot to remain closed.
Two weeks ago, haredi protesters and police clashed following the opening of the municipal lot near City Hall, with six policemen sustaining injuries from thrown objects.
Barkat announced at the time that the lot would be closed for two weeks so that a compromise could be forged.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.