Defense Minister Amir Peretz
Photo: Dana Kopel
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
Photo: AP
Peretz: Olmert lacks political agenda
Defense minister says Olmert failed to foster political agenda after decision to drop realignment plan last summer
Defense Minister Amir Peretz lashed out at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for lacking a political agenda for Israel, saying Olmert should have conceived an alternative diplomatic path after his decision to shelve the realignment plan last summer.
"The biggest failure of the government and the prime minister is the absence of a political plan since the cancellation of the realignment," Peretz told aides behind closed doors.
Following the abduction of an Israeli soldier near Gaza and the war with Hizbullah last summer, Olmert dropped plans to draw Israel's final borders without negotiations with the Palestinians by uprooting isolated settlements in the West Bank.
Peretz also said that Olmert was not seriously exploring the authenticity of peace overtures by Syria and a Saudi land-for-peace initiative.
The initiative offers Israel normal relations with the Arab world in return for a Palestinian state and full withdrawal from land captured during the 1967 Israeli-Arab war.
The head of the National Security Council Ilan Mizrahi said Monday that recent Syrian calls for renewing peace talks with Israel were genuine.
"We need to check every peace opportunity, be it the Saudi peace initiative or peace calls by the moderate Palestinian camp and Damascus," Peretz said at Tel Aviv University.
Peretz warned however that Israel would not turn a blind eye to daily rocket attacks against kibbutzim and towns near the Gaza Strip, saying the Jewish State could be forced to launch a broad military offensive to stem the attacks.
An Israeli man was lightly injured on Sunday by a rocket that hit his house in the southern city of Sderot.
Tal Rabinovich contributed to this report
