While the coalition negotiations with the Labor Party near an agreement ,there appears to be a crisis in Kadima's talks with Israel Our Home, which announced Saturday afternoon that it does not accept the government's diplomatic basic guidelines relating to the evacuation of settlements.
The bone of contention is clause 3 of the basic guidelines draft, which says that "the Israeli territory, the borders of which will be determined by the government, will entail a reduction of the Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria."
Avigdor Lieberman's party said in a statement: "Our faction opposes the reference in the diplomatic basic guidelines concerning a reduction of the Israeli settlement in Judea and Samaria, and demands that every act aimed at forming Israel's permanent borders be in accordance with the demographic reality, in order to ensure that the State of Israel will be a Jewish state with a Jewish majority."
"Israel Our Home will not agree to what is stated in clause 3 of the basic guidelines," the statement read.
Knesset Member Yuri Shtern told Ynet: "We received the draft from them. We don’t see any logic in committing in advance to evacuate settlements if it's not in return for other accomplishments."
Throughout the negotiations, Kadima tried to be vague on the diplomatic issues, but Labor demanded that the issue of settlement evacuation be noted explicitly so that every party headed to the coalition would agree to the political plan by signing the coalition agreement.
From Israel Our Home's declaration it appears that Lieberman is unsatisfied with the understandings between Labor and Kadima, both on the diplomatic and on the political area. Through the diplomatic issue, Lieberman and his people are trying to manifest their power and signal to Olmert that they also want to receive portfolios according to the key of one minister for every 2.5 Knesset members.
Taking into consideration that Olmert would also like to see Shas, Israel Our Home, United Torah Judaism and the Pensioners part in his coalition, it seems that he will be unable to be as generous toward his partners as he was toward Labor.
First published: 14:33, 04.22.6