Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Boycott
campaign will not succeed, no pressure will make me concede Israel's
vital interests • U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at Munich Security
Conference: Status quo cannot be maintained, it's not sustainable.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on
Sunday that anti-Israel boycott efforts are "immoral and unjust."
Speaking at Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the boycott efforts
would not achieve their goal.
Netanyahu said the boycotts "cause the Palestinians to adhere to their intransigent positions and thus push peace further away."
"No pressure will cause me to concede the
vital interests of the State of Israel, especially the security of
Israel's citizens," he said.
Netanyahu's comments came a day after U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry warned that Israel may face a torrent of
boycotts should the ongoing peace negotiations with the Palestinians
fail.
Speaking at the annual Munich Security
Conference on Saturday, Kerry said, "You see, for Israel, there's an
increasing delegitimization campaign that has been building up. People
are very sensitive to it. There is talk of boycotts and other kinds of
things. Are we all going to be better with all of that?
"Today's status quo absolutely, to a
certainty, I promise you 100 percent, cannot be maintained. It's not
sustainable. It's illusionary. There's a momentary prosperity, there's a
momentary peace. … But the fact is the status quo will change if there
is failure. So everybody has a stake in trying to find the pathway to
success."
Credit: Reuters Kerry's statements prompted criticism in Israel.
"Kerry should be pressuring the Palestinians,"
a political official in Jerusalem said. "His statements are doing [the
peace process] little good, since all they do is make [the Palestinians]
harden their rejectionist positions."
A number of Likud and Habayit Hayehudi political figures came out strongly against Kerry.
On Sunday, Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval
Steinitz called Kerry's words "intolerable" and said Israel "would not
negotiate with a gun to our heads."
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Economy and
Trade Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) said, "The nation of
Israel is stronger than the threats against her. Never has a nation
abandoned their land because of economic threats. We are no different.
"Only security will ensure economic stability.
Not a terrorist state next to Ben-Gurion Airport. We expect our friends
around the world to stand beside us, against anti-Semitic boycott
efforts targeting Israel, and not for them to be their amplifier. We
have always known how to stay strong and today we will know how to
remain strong."
Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Habayit Hayehudi)
slammed Kerry's statement, saying, "The only illusions are the peace
slogans Kerry is trying to pawn off on Israel. The Palestinian cannot
believe their good fortune, ending up with such an 'impartial'
mediator."
Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely
(Likud) said, "Kerry's threats of an unprecedented boycott are an
attempt to terrorize Israel into agreeing to a dangerous deal. A deal
that would pose a security risk to Israel is worse than any boycott."
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon (Likud)
said that while Israel "respects" Kerry, "friends do not issue
ultimatums when it comes to Israel's security."
MK Ofir Akunis (Likud), a deputy minister in
the Prime Minister's Office, said that "Kerry is promoting aggressive
policies which only push peace further away. We were here before John
Kerry and we will be here after him as well."
"Kerry is tirelessly meddling in Israeli
politics," a Likud source said. "This goes beyond harsh words and the
threats he made against Israel, but also the leaks of the [framework
deal] document in the very week there was a crisis with Habayit
Hayehudi."
Opposition MKs, however, opted to heed Kerry's warning.
"Israel is facing an economic tsunami," MK
Nachman Shai (Labor) said. "The boycotts against us have crossed the
point of no return. This nightmare is coming true as we speak and this
dense government refuses to see it."
Meretz Chairwoman MK Zehava Gal-On warned that
Israel "might soon find itself isolated and ostracized, like Cuba and
South Africa."
It appears that Netanyahu, Defense Minister
Moshe Ya'alon, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Justice Minister
Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid are inclined to agree with
Kerry's proposal, which he intends to present as a framework deal that
would facilitate extending the window for the peace talks to the end of
2014.
Sources familiar with the issue hedged that
the document would not be presented to the government, but rather to the
faction heads, a move which would allow Bennett to oppose it without
resigning from the government.
The Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams were set to meet in Munich on Sunday afternoon.
Ya'alon and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
met in Bavaria on Saturday evening. According to sources in the defense
minister's office, Ya'alon recent critical statements on Kerry were not
discussed in the meeting.
Livni, who heads the Israeli negotiating team, received
compliments Friday from an unlikely source -- former head of Saudi
intelligence Prince Turki Al-Faisal, who told her, "Now that I have met
you here I understand why you are the Israeli negotiator, and I hope
that with this matter is in your hands it will not be so difficult with
Netanyahu."
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