Netanyahu partner urges peace deal with Palestinians

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Netanyahu partner urges peace deal with Palestinians

BY MAAYAN LUBELL
TEL AVIV Sun Dec 8, 2013 10:43am EST

(Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main coalition partner publicly prodded him on Sunday to show "historic courage" and reach a peace deal with the Palestinians even at the risk of his government's collapse.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid, in a speech, reassured Netanyahu of his centrist Yesh Atid party's support and spoke of possible changes in the coalition - a nod to any future exit of far-right factions and their replacement by left-wing partners - should a land-for-peace agreement be achieved.

"I'm determined to do everything within my power to ensure that this government stays the course - even if developments in the peace negotiations necessitate a coalition realignment of one kind or another," Lapid said.

But he also appeared to issue a warning to Netanyahu, reiterating that Yesh Atid, which has 19 legislators in the 120-member parliament and is the second-biggest party in the coalition, would not remain in a government that did not genuinely pursue a negotiated settlement.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/08/us-palestinians-israel-idUSBRE9B706W20131208

[oberliner]

1. Good on him

And putting some teeth behind it!

[shira]

4. Our anti-hasburrito opponents here see Lapid as just another racist zionist....

...just another liar who really doesn't want peace with the sub-human indigenous whose land he loves to steal and whose people he wants to ethnically cleanse, impoverish, and ultimately kill.

After all, Lapid is a racist, colonial, judeo-nazi zionist for apartheid.

That's what we zionists are all about.

The secret is out. Why pretend otherwise?

They know!!!

[Jefferson23]

2. What heavy price does he think Israel will pay..hmm.

snip* Neither side has given details of the U.S. ideas. Israel has long said it would want to keep a military presence between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, as well as swathes of Jewish settlements - enclaves that most of the world deems illegal.

[King_David]

3. A heavy price for both peoples/ countries

either way. Seems there has to be give and take on both sides.

[shaayecanaan]

5. Nothing

He gave an interview to Charlie Rose where he said that the Palestinians would have to capitulate on the issues of Jerusalem, the settlements and refugees for there to be a deal. That doesn't leave much room for Israeli concessions.

[Jefferson23]

6. True to form, yep. Those land swaps are going to screw it to the Palestinians, among

other measures Bibi will demand.