News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Shas party chairman and Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Eli Yishai called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to halt his talks with the Palestinian Authority in the wake of Friday's terrorist attack in which two off-duty IDF soldiers were murdered while hiking with a third friend near Telem Spring.

"The negotiations need to cease the moment there are fatalities," said Yishai. "The Palestinians need to stop asking us to fulfill our Roadmap obligations before they fulfill theirs," he said. Yishai made his remarks during the weekly Sunday morning cabinet meeting. 

Over the weekend, Yishai turned down a plea from the wealthiest Jew in the world, Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas, for him and for Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman and Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman to quit the government, which would have broken the Olmert coalition.