Gadi Baltiansky
Photo: AP
Yariv Oppenheimer
Leftist groups urge Olmert to advance talks with PA
Peace Now, Geneva Initiative to launch wide-scale campaign aimed at encouraging PM to 'choose peace'
Peace Now and the Geneva Initiative announced on Wednesday the launching of a wide-scale campaign in the coming days aimed at encouraging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to advance the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and tackle the core issues of the conflict at the upcoming US-brokered peace conference in Annapolis.
The campaign's slogans, "Olmert, it's time to choose" and "It's time to choose – yes for peace", will appear on the internet, in the press, and on hundreds of signs all across the country.
"We can swarm Khan Younis with tanks, and it can be decided that the residents of Gaza shower in cold water only, but in the end, there is no better solution than a peace agreement," said Gadi Baltiansky, director general of the Geneva Initiative.
"The polls indicate that the public realizes this. The question is whether Olmert and the ministers in his government understand this."
'Right has joint interest with Iran'
Baltiansky continued: "We are saying to Olmert 'it's either (Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor) Lieberman or your grandchildren; it's your decision – the coalition or the country's future'."
During a press conference the campaign's organizers called on the Labor Party to "come out of the closet" and back the peace talks.
"As long as the (Knesset) seat is glued to their behinds, they (Labor members) don't voice their opinion and do not apply any pressure in order to progress the negotiations," Baltiansky said.
Yariv Oppenheimer, secretary-general of Peace Now, said "The Israeli Right has a joint interest with Iran and with anyone else who does not seek diplomatic progress. We see the pressure being applied on the ministers. Everyone is trying to sabotage the Annapolis conference's chances of success.
"Therefore, the citizens of Israel must be made aware that a successful conference is the real answer to the Iranian threat," he said.
