News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Shas party chairman, Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai will meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Tuesday for the first time since Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman pulled his Israel Is Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu) party out of the coalition. The status of Jerusalem will be at the heart of the talks.

Shas has warned that it also will withdraw from the coalition if the government proposes surrendering parts of the capital to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Shas has claimed that the issue has not reached serious negotiations and that there is no need to quit the coalition, but Monday's discussions at a closed Knesset sub-committee hearing on new restrictions of building in Jerusalem's outlying neighborhoods have placed more pressure on Shas to leave the government.