FWD: Here is Shas' fig leaf

thanks, J.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125237

 

This enables Shas to stay in the government and still not break its "promise" to leave if Jerusalem is being negotiated. Olmert agrees that it is not on the table "yet" and the "Palestinians" agree not to talk about it any more. Shas can now pretend that there is no elephant in the room.

 

There is no point trying to pressure Shas. They are too much under the thumb of the regime via bribery, blackmail and intimidation (BBI democracy) to abandon the establishment.

 

 

Olmert: PA Agrees to Leave Jerusalem Talks Last

7 Adar 5768, 13 February 08 03:09

by Hana Julian

(IsraelNN.com) The thorny issue of negotiations over Jerusalem will be put on the back burner until the rest of the final status discussions with the Palestinian Authority are completed, according to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
 
"I wouldn't say that we have pushed the Jerusalem issue aside, but we don't want to corner ourselves at the beginning of negotiations," he said.

The Prime Minister said that "the matter of Jerusalem is not first but last in terms of the order in which the core issues will be discussed and there is agreement by all parties involved in the negotiations."  The PA has not confirmed this.

Shas Threats
Olmert's claim came in the face of reports that senior government negotiators are already talking with their PA counterparts on the issue, which threatens to break up the Olmert coalition government.

Shas has warned it will quit the coalition if talks take place on dividing the capital.

Shas chairman Eli Yishai, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, expressed surprise Tuesday after reporters noted that Israeli chief negotiator Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met Monday and Tuesday with her PA counterpart in the talks, Ahmed Queri (Abu Ala). Yishai was unaware of those meetings, despite a promise by Olmert to keep him updated on the negotiations.

In the exclusive English interview above, Shas MK Shlomo Benizri is asked why Shas is staying in the government when Israel's Foreign Minister won't deny that Jerusalem is already being negotiated. Benizri says that the party will wait until the Prime Minister returns from Germany to get clarification.

Shas Communications Minister Ariel Atias was unsurprised. "We get the impression that Jerusalem is being discussed," he told the Jerusalem Post. "The foreign minister doesn't deny it. Olmert has to decide whether he wants Shas in the government or whether he wants what Livni is doing."

Yishai is scheduled to meet Wednesday with Olmert and is expected to confront the Prime Minister on the issue. Also on Wednesday, a delegation of Rabbis is scheduled to meet with Shas Party spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, amongst them Sderot Hesder Yeshiva Dean David Fendel, to convince him to pull his party out of the government.

A Shas party official told the Hebrew newspaper Ma'ariv that Livni may be holding secret talks on Jerusalem as a means of forcing Shas to quit the coalition and bring down the government.

In such a scenario, Prime Minister Olmert would face a challenge for the party chair. Several of his Kadima colleagues have expressed interest in running against him for the position and although she has not said so, many analysts expect Livni to be one of the candidates. It is also possible that the Kadima party might lose its leadership of the government altogether.

"We don't expect Olmert to scold Livni," said the source. "We just want to know if she is conducting secret negotiations on Jerusalem."

The Prime Minister told reporters the PA has expressed "satisfaction at the seriousness with which the talks are progressing," although PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad this week complained that Israel is stalling on negotiations and that there has been no progress.

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