‘No peace deal if settlers not removed'

"There can be no peace agreement without the dismantlement of settlements and the removal of settlers, including immigrants who have come from abroad and have taken control in the West Bank of land that doesn't belong to them," MK Ahmad Tibi (UAL) said Sunday.

Comment: He means the Israeli citizens living in one of the disputed territories. Tibi was responding to Israel Beiteinu's "red lines" announced Saturday night by party chairman Avigdor Lieberman ahead of the planned Annapolis parley. Lieberman declared that his party would only support a final-status agreement if it included a land swap and the transfer of Israeli Arabs to Palestinian territories.

"The borders must be the 1967 lines, including east Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine," Israel Radio quoted Tibi as saying.
MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) said that Israeli Arabs are opposed to the "Jerusalem for Umm el-Fahm," deal.

"Lieberman should calm down. There won't be a deal if there is no essential change in Israel's stance toward the Arab peace initiative," said Zahalka.
Hadash Chairman Muhammad Barakei said that Lieberman's declarations would "torpedo peace talks even before they have begun."

Barakei called the Israel Beiteinu head a "troublemaker" who sat in the government and preached "coarse violence."

In Israel Beitenu's "red lines" document, set to be presented to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the party also demanded the deployment of NATO forces in the Palestinian areas in order to ensure Israel's safety in the case of a surge of violence.
Meanwhile, Lieberman declared Sunday that he would withdraw from the government if the Annapolis conference included negotiations on core issues of the conflict.
"We won't remain partners in the government if there will be significant negotiations on the core subjects," Lieberman told Army Radio.

Any agreement with the Palestinians must not include a concession by Israel on its control over Jerusalem's disputed holy sites nor a symbolic return of Palestinian refugees, Lieberman continued.

Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni have already stated that the conference would not be a forum for such concessions.

In the document, Lieberman reiterates his party's policy that calls for land swaps - including in some east Jerusalem neighborhoods - and discounts, outright, the possibility of a "safe passage" between the West Bank and Gaza. "The state of Israel will not allow passage between Gaza and Judea and Samaria that transverses its sovereign territory," the statement reads. "This situation is congruent with the one that existed prior to June 4 1967."

Lieberman expresses adamant opposition to any concessions over Palestinian refugees' "right of return." Even on the "humanitarian level," Lieberman says, "this issue is absolute and non-negotiable."