Giving new meaning to the term patriotism, MK Tzipi Livni tells high school students that the charge of the hour is to support the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.
Livni met on Wednesday with seniors and juniors in the Charles E. Smith High School for the Arts in Jerusalem. She had harsh words for hareidi-religious Jews, and said that it is in Israel’s interest to give up parts of its national homeland.
“The two-state solution is a Jewish-Zionist-Israeli interest,” said Livni, who served as Foreign Minister under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert from 2006 until 2009. “It is this year’s patriotism. The day that the two-state solution is removed from the table, another program that we do not support, or a plan for one state – which will not be Jewish – will be offered. Only leaders who understand that can make order here.”
Status Quo Can't Persist
Continuing her “peace immediately” outlook, Livni said, “The price of no-solution is higher than the price of a solution. Some people are comfortable with the status quo, but there is no such animal. We are sitting on a volcano. We must solve the national conflict with the Palestinians before it becomes a religious conflict.”
“I believe in the historic, Biblical, ethical rights of the Jewish Nation to all of the Land of Israel,” said Livni, whose parents were active members of the pre-State nationalist Etzel organization, “but I also believe in the Zionist vision. Therefore, I know that in order to guarantee Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, we will have to give up part of this land.”
Dividing Jerusalem
As Foreign Minister, Livni headed Israel’s negotiating team with the PA throughout 2008, in which she apparently agreed – for the first time in Israel’s history – to divide Jerusalem and give up parts thereof. She negotiated the terms of UN Resolution 1701 that brought the Second Lebanon War to an end and hailed it as the solution to the hostility of Israel's northern neighbors, but that resolution has since been defied and ignored by the Lebanese, Syrians and Hizbullah.
“Negotiations are difficult,” she told the high school students. “There are interests that must be defended. I don’t want people to think that there is no chance for an agreement. I conducted talks with the Palestinians for nine months, and I think they should be resumed from where they left off. It’s possible to reach an agreement, as long as you go into the room not to set limits, but to set and promote the interests of the State of Israel.”
Livni also criticized the hareidi-religious public severely: “Thanks to a bad governmental system, parties that represent hareidim impose their outlook on the majority… A situation has been created in which those who work, pay taxes and serve in the army carry on their backs, budgetarily, those who do not do this. We must find the common denominator in Israeli society… We must have a program for core issues in all schools, and military or national service for all.”