From THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 16, 2008, by gil hoffman and jpost.com staff [emphasis added]:
Likud on Wednesday expressed its appreciation to Israel Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman for his decision to quit the coalition and try to stop the dangerous path that the government was leading. Likud called upon Shas to follow suit so that it wouldn't be a bridge toward dividing Jerusalem and returning Israel to indefensible borders.
Likud MK Israel Katz, who chairs the party's secretariat, called upon Lieberman to join the struggle to bring down the government and work together to advance elections.
Likud MK Silvan Shalom said: "This is the beginning of the end of [Prime Minister Ehud[ Olmert's government. I hope [Labor chairman Ehud] Barak will go in the same way as Lieberman and won't prefer the survival of the government to the survival of his own credibility."
Shas chairman Eli Yishai requested a meeting with Olmert when the Shas chairman returns from China at end of week to demand clarification of the prime minister's policy on Jerusalem, the party announced on Wednesday following Lieberman's resignation.
Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef upgraded the party's threat to leave the government on Tuesday and said if Jerusalem is raised in negotiations it would be enough for the party to leave.
Communications Minister Ariel Attias (Shas) downplayed the apparent change in Shas's policy.
"Negotiations on the core issues have started and we didn't leave," Attias said. "Now that Lieberman is gone, our job is to put the breaks on dividing Jerusalem, we will check on an ongoing basis whether Jerusalem is on the table, but Olmert is not an idiot. He will leave the Jerusalem issue until the end of the negotiations because of us and he will never get there. As long as we are in the government, Jerusalem will not be negotiated over and we will go to the next elections as the defenders of Jerusalem."
Likud MK Yuval Steinitz said Shas was fooling itself by announcing that it would remain in the government in order to defend Jerusalem. "Jerusalem is being cut to shreds on the negotiating table and Shas will ultimately be responsible for the loss of the Western Wall," Steinitz said.
Lieberman announced Israel Beitienu's planned departure at a press conference on Wednesday morning, due to the commencement of talks on core issues such as Jerusalem, the refugees and the contours of a future Palestinian state.
After Israel Beiteinu's 11 MKs leave the government, Olmert's coalition will number only 67 MKs and will be propped up on Shas, which has also threatened to leave the coalition.
"I want to thank Ehud Olmert for his candor, we have always been open with one another," Lieberman said. "It was obvious that we would not agree on fundamental issues."
"Approximately a week before [the] Annapolis [conference] we put out a document [with our] red lines. We delineated in the clearest possible fashion what we are willing to abide with and what we cannot [accept]. Two days before Annapolis, I met with Olmert in his home and reiterated our red lines."
Core issues are a critical point for Israel Beiteinu, which does not believe that the territories and the unauthorized outposts are at the root of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Lieberman said. "Any negotiation on the basis of land for peace is an inexplicable mistake."
...."Our problem is with MK Ahmed Tibi and MK Muhammad Barakei. They are more dangerous for the state of Israel than Khaled Mashaal and Nasrallah. They are working systematically from within the state in order to destroy it as a Jewish and Zionist state," he said...
....Israel Radio reported Tuesday that US President George W. Bush told Lieberman at Thursday's dinner at Olmert's residence that he wouldn't let a Palestinian state be formed while he was president, because it would endanger Israel's security. According to the report, Bush told Lieberman that it would endanger Israel's security if a Palestinian state was created before all of the stages of the road map were implemented.
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