The coalition agreement between the Likud Beytenu and the Hatnua party chaired by Tzipi Livni is unacceptable to the Bayit Yehudi, officials in the party said on Thursday evening.
Negotiating teams from the Likud-Yisrael Beytenu and the Bayit Yehudi will meet Friday to resume negotiations toward the formation of a coalition, and the officials indicated they plan to demand that the agreement with Livni’s party be reconsidered.
The agreement stipulates that Livni will be appointed Justice Minister and will also be in charge of handling the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
Bayit Yehudi objects to allowing Livni to lead the negotiations since, when she conducted negotiations under former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert it was reported that the two had agreed to give up part of Jerusalem to the PA. Livni rejected the allegations at the time, but former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has revealed in her memoir that Olmert offered Abbas 94% of Judea and Samaria, as well as shared control over Jerusalem. Abbas rejected the offer.
“The role given to Tzipi Livni as responsible for the negotiations with the Palestinians is not and will be not acceptable to us,” Bayit Yehudi officials told Arutz Sheva on Thursday, adding that a person who conducted negotiations over ceding parts of Jerusalem and agreed to return large parts of Judea and Samaria to the PA cannot receive such power.
“Someone who truly wants to form a government with nationalist values cannot take one of the elements of the extreme left and allow her to place her hands on the diplomatic steering wheel,” they added.
The officials added that it is delusional that Hatnua, which did not even recommend to President Shimon Peres that he task Binyamin Netanyahu with forming the coalition, enters the government and receives a role of such great responsibility “with implications for the status of Israel and the settlement enterprise.”
“Livni should be prepared for the fact that the agreement between her and the Likud will be reopened,” they added.
On Wednesday, Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett attacked the agreement between the Likud and Hatnua, reminding that Livni was ready to split Jerusalem and even gave up on the city of Ariel.
Hatnua rejected Bennett’s remarks and even accused of him lying when it said, “Livni never gave up on Ariel and never negotiated about Jerusalem, but carefully maintained Israel's national interests. In politics, telling the truth is also an option.”