Justice Minister Tzipi Livni had dire warnings Thursday for government ministers who have opposed territorial concessions to the Palestinian Authority.
Without naming names, Livni said that ministers who are not prepared to concede land are “hypocrites” – and, if they get their way, will ultimately destroy Israel as a Jewish state.
“We all want peace. But there is a price that whoever really wants peace must pay,” she declared, speaking at an event at the Bar Ilan University Law Department.
“This is the choice we have: if we want to protect the Jewish, democratic state - or the entire land of Israel, which will not be Jewish, and will not be democratic,” she argued. The only way to keep Israel both Jewish and democratic is through negotiations for the creation of an Arab state in Judea and Samaria, she said.
“If we don’t come to a decision, the world will decide for us,” warned Livni, who heads the Israeli negotiating team.
Livni also defended the record of United States Secretary of State John Kerry, who has come under criticism in Israel recently for appearing to threaten Israel with international ostracism, and for wrongly claiming that terrorism had decreased last year.
Kerry has defended Israeli interests, she said.
Livni spoke warmly of the Bar Ilan Law Department, where she formerly studied, saying the department gave her the tools she is using in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.