Livni defends talks with PA despite ongoing terror

Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni responded to the no-confidence motion filed by the Likud party following the government's decision to launch negotiations with the Palestinian Authority regarding the core issues

at hand. Livni said she had no intention of delaying the talks and that furthermore, a refusal on Israel's part to continue negotiations may be costly.

"I cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and wait for things to pass us by, wait for the extremists and terrorists to take the place of the pragmatists," she said.

Speaking to the Knesset hours after meeting in Jerusalem with the PA's top negotiator, Ahmed Qureia, on the aforementioned divisive core issues, Livni said that ending the conflict will require the two sides to touch on all the points of contention – including the core issues.

"When the conflict is a national one, it can be resolved by establishing two nation-states. When the conflict is religious – there is no solution. I do not know if we can provide this solution. I am not standing here and promising that tomorrow we will wake up to a new world, a new Middle East, where everything is wonderful. That is not my way.

"I don't believe in it, but I do believe that it is my duty to try, that it is my responsibility to try and I think that if we don't do this – that whoever does not do this will never forgive himself when he sees the consequences of that inaction."

Livni said she and Quriea would continue to meet regularly and that she has no intentions of conducting said negotiations in the media spotlight. "Experience teaches that that path leads nowhere and therefore in my choice between dramatic headlines and actual results – I will opt for the latter."

Livni vowed Israel would continue to combat terror alongside the negotiations and said she was not under the illusion that terrorism would disappear once talks began.