Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth spoke with Foreign Minister Tzippy Livni on Friday, and the interview was published in today's edition of the newspaper. Weymouth introduced Livni as follows:
"Israel's new foreign minister, Tzippy Livni, is a rising star in Israel's centrist Kadima party. Although she grew up in a right-wing Likud family, Livni, 47, strongly supported Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to withdraw Israeli troops and settlements from the Gaza Strip as well as his formation of a new party -- which is favored to win the most votes in elections set for March...
Livni said,
"I entered Israel's political life and joined Likud because I thought it should lead Israel in terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... Then I understood that there is no chance to get the Likud to be a united party because most Likud leaders couldn't make clear statements about the need for Israel to support a process for a two-state solution. Mostly they were arguing about the past, not the future. Until now, every Likud platform starts with the word "no" to a Palestinian state, "no" to the disengagement plan, "no" to this and "no" to that. I believe it's important that a party that wants to lead Israel should have a platform that is about values or ideas and accept the understanding that, at the end of the day, there's going to be two states."
Q. You need a party that puts forward values?
"My need as an Israeli and a Jew is to keep a Jewish homeland for the Jewish people, a sovereign, Jewish and democratic state with a Jewish majority. So how do we [do that]? The idea is to divide the land, to give up some of our rights on the land of Israel and to establish a two-state solution."
Livni avoided answering two important questions - whether she would "evacuate West Bank settlements," and how Israel would relate to a PA government that includes Hamas:
Q. Are you going to evacuate West Bank settlements?
A. This government adopted the road map to give the Palestinians a political horizon... to define from the beginning that at the end of the process, Israel will negotiate with the Palestinians all the final status issues. The road map to get two states was cut into phases. In the first phase there are also some Israeli obligations but mostly it is the Palestinians' obligation to dismantle terrorist organizations, to reform, to democratize. The idea is that Israel will not accept a Palestinian state that hosts terrorist organizations or is a base for terror against Israeli civilians.
Q. So what do you do about the fact that after the Palestinian elections next week, Hamas may become a large part of the Palestinian government ?
A. Israel made clear in the last few months that the participation of Hamas in the Palestinian Authority elections is totally against any kind of democratic values.
Q. What's Israel going to do when Hamas becomes a part of the Palestinians' government?
A. First, I believe that it is the role of the international community to speak right now, even before the elections, and to say in a very clear voice that elections are only meant to achieve the goals that terrorist organizations cannot be part of any parliament.
Q. Will you communicate with the Hamas-Palestinian government?
A. Israel cannot communicate with terrorist organizations... They are using terror because they cannot accept the existence of Israel. This is part of the Hamas charter. It is totally unacceptable.
Livni later explained,
"The idea of the disengagement plan was to open a new window of opportunity. Before, we were on the first phase of the road map. But the Palestinians didn't implement their part. There was no partner on the Palestinian side. Israel could [have waited] on the first phase of the road map and [done] nothing. But we decided that we could take some risky steps and send a message to the world and to the Palestinians that we mean business -- that when needed, we are dismantling settlements. The message is that Israel is no longer the Palestinian excuse for not fighting terrorism. We took our forces out of the Gaza Strip, we dismantled the settlements and now Israel is no longer the excuse. And now we are back on the track of the road map; we are not talking now about more unilateral steps... Our expectation now is that the Palestinians will implement their word."
She explained that though her father was an Irgun commander whose tombstone features a map of Greater Israel including both sides of the Jordan River, she had to choose differently - a homeland that leaves out not only the eastern bank of the Jordan, but also much of the western bank:
"Many ask if territorial compromise is against my father's ideology, and I say he taught me to believe in a democratic Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people where all people enjoy equal rights. I came to the conclusion that I cannot implement all of my ideology. I have to choose, and my choice was to implement the ideology of a homeland for the Jewish people with equal rights to all the minorities in the land of Israel, but [the homeland will be] only in part of the land of Israel.
"...I decided to enter politics in 1995 and in my first TV interview I said I accept the idea of dividing the land, but I believe that it is important to do it the right way... But I thought Labor did it the wrong way with Oslo and Camp David. I opposed Oslo because it postponed the hard core of the conflict -- final status issues. I believed from the beginning that the idea of a two-state solution provides an answer..."
Speaking of the disengagement from Gaza, she said, "It was a difficult operation to take these people out of their homes. I thought about it a few days ago and realized that we did it -- there are no Jews in Gaza. We made the decision in June 2004 and by 2005, it was over. Yet it has affected Israeli society -- there are some wounds that we should heal. It was not simple to take this decision."
Livni said, "The disengagement plan changed totally the terms of the conflict and the political map in Israel. It changed some of the right-wing understanding and should change the international community's attitude toward Israel. Until then, Israel was blamed as a country that wants to control the lives of the Palestinians and will not dismantle any settlements."
"Israel's new foreign minister, Tzippy Livni, is a rising star in Israel's centrist Kadima party. Although she grew up in a right-wing Likud family, Livni, 47, strongly supported Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to withdraw Israeli troops and settlements from the Gaza Strip as well as his formation of a new party -- which is favored to win the most votes in elections set for March...
Livni said,
"I entered Israel's political life and joined Likud because I thought it should lead Israel in terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... Then I understood that there is no chance to get the Likud to be a united party because most Likud leaders couldn't make clear statements about the need for Israel to support a process for a two-state solution. Mostly they were arguing about the past, not the future. Until now, every Likud platform starts with the word "no" to a Palestinian state, "no" to the disengagement plan, "no" to this and "no" to that. I believe it's important that a party that wants to lead Israel should have a platform that is about values or ideas and accept the understanding that, at the end of the day, there's going to be two states."
Q. You need a party that puts forward values?
"My need as an Israeli and a Jew is to keep a Jewish homeland for the Jewish people, a sovereign, Jewish and democratic state with a Jewish majority. So how do we [do that]? The idea is to divide the land, to give up some of our rights on the land of Israel and to establish a two-state solution."
Livni avoided answering two important questions - whether she would "evacuate West Bank settlements," and how Israel would relate to a PA government that includes Hamas:
Q. Are you going to evacuate West Bank settlements?
A. This government adopted the road map to give the Palestinians a political horizon... to define from the beginning that at the end of the process, Israel will negotiate with the Palestinians all the final status issues. The road map to get two states was cut into phases. In the first phase there are also some Israeli obligations but mostly it is the Palestinians' obligation to dismantle terrorist organizations, to reform, to democratize. The idea is that Israel will not accept a Palestinian state that hosts terrorist organizations or is a base for terror against Israeli civilians.
Q. So what do you do about the fact that after the Palestinian elections next week, Hamas may become a large part of the Palestinian government ?
A. Israel made clear in the last few months that the participation of Hamas in the Palestinian Authority elections is totally against any kind of democratic values.
Q. What's Israel going to do when Hamas becomes a part of the Palestinians' government?
A. First, I believe that it is the role of the international community to speak right now, even before the elections, and to say in a very clear voice that elections are only meant to achieve the goals that terrorist organizations cannot be part of any parliament.
Q. Will you communicate with the Hamas-Palestinian government?
A. Israel cannot communicate with terrorist organizations... They are using terror because they cannot accept the existence of Israel. This is part of the Hamas charter. It is totally unacceptable.
Livni later explained,
"The idea of the disengagement plan was to open a new window of opportunity. Before, we were on the first phase of the road map. But the Palestinians didn't implement their part. There was no partner on the Palestinian side. Israel could [have waited] on the first phase of the road map and [done] nothing. But we decided that we could take some risky steps and send a message to the world and to the Palestinians that we mean business -- that when needed, we are dismantling settlements. The message is that Israel is no longer the Palestinian excuse for not fighting terrorism. We took our forces out of the Gaza Strip, we dismantled the settlements and now Israel is no longer the excuse. And now we are back on the track of the road map; we are not talking now about more unilateral steps... Our expectation now is that the Palestinians will implement their word."
She explained that though her father was an Irgun commander whose tombstone features a map of Greater Israel including both sides of the Jordan River, she had to choose differently - a homeland that leaves out not only the eastern bank of the Jordan, but also much of the western bank:
"Many ask if territorial compromise is against my father's ideology, and I say he taught me to believe in a democratic Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people where all people enjoy equal rights. I came to the conclusion that I cannot implement all of my ideology. I have to choose, and my choice was to implement the ideology of a homeland for the Jewish people with equal rights to all the minorities in the land of Israel, but [the homeland will be] only in part of the land of Israel.
"...I decided to enter politics in 1995 and in my first TV interview I said I accept the idea of dividing the land, but I believe that it is important to do it the right way... But I thought Labor did it the wrong way with Oslo and Camp David. I opposed Oslo because it postponed the hard core of the conflict -- final status issues. I believed from the beginning that the idea of a two-state solution provides an answer..."
Speaking of the disengagement from Gaza, she said, "It was a difficult operation to take these people out of their homes. I thought about it a few days ago and realized that we did it -- there are no Jews in Gaza. We made the decision in June 2004 and by 2005, it was over. Yet it has affected Israeli society -- there are some wounds that we should heal. It was not simple to take this decision."
Livni said, "The disengagement plan changed totally the terms of the conflict and the political map in Israel. It changed some of the right-wing understanding and should change the international community's attitude toward Israel. Until then, Israel was blamed as a country that wants to control the lives of the Palestinians and will not dismantle any settlements."