Olmert - vague?
צילום: פלאש 90
Labor: Kadima ‘vague’ on diplomatic policy
Labor reviews Kadima’s draft of Basic Principles for next government, says a number of issues still must be resolved, including wording of plan for West Bank withdrawal; insists unilateral moves only acceptable as last resort
Kadima's policies regarding plans for further West Bank withdrawals are "vague," Labor party officials said Sunday, signaling a coalition agreement between the two parties was still far from being finalized.
Labor’s coalition negotiation team gathered in committee head David Libai’s office Sunday afternoon to review Kadima's draft of the Basic Principles for the next government.
Contradictory to earlier reports that the two parties were near agreement - with minimum wage the chief obstacle obstructing a final deal - it appears that Kadima and Labor don’t see eye to eye on a number of issues, including central political matters.
Libai told reporters that “regarding most clauses in the draft (61 in all) there can be agreement. In reviewing the draft it is apparent that Kadima was receptive to our needs and included some of them in the Basic Principles. With that, there remain some socioeconomic as well as political issues that we will ask be fixed.”
Regarding the disagreements on political policy, Libai said the current draft was “too vague” and stressed that Labor only agrees to unilateral policy as a last resort on the condition that bilateral efforts fail.
“We are not insisting it be written out that there will be a disengagement or convergence. We know that this interpretation bothers Shas and we don’t want to torpedo their joining the government. With that, though, there are other wordings that we do insist on.”
“We oppose wording of wide national agreement. We refuse to accept anything against Ariel Sharon’s legacy. It must be clear from the Basic Principles that whoever joins the government is willing to pursue unilateral withdrawal only if negotiations with the Palestinians fail. We wish to clarify that there won’t be any transfer, nor will there be a national referendum,” he noted.
Minimum wage question
Libai reiterated that Labor would insist on increasing minimum wage and old-age pensions as well as improving the medical basket.
“For us, there is no room for compromise on minimum wage,” Libai said. “There is no disagreement with Kadima over the salary objective, only over the pace of reaching that goal.”
Labor is insisting on an NIS 500 increase in minimum wage already by this coming September. Senior Kadima officials told Ynet last week that they would unequivocally oppose raising minimum wage to USD 1'000. With that, during talks between the sides' negotiating teams, Kadima suggested raising minimum wage by NIS 200 to 300 at a time, spread over a long period of time. Labor, however, refused the offer.
