Coalition heavyweights embrace Netanyahu speech

[June 15, 2009]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- Top figures in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hawkish government lined up behind him Monday after he declared conditional support for Palestinian independence, despite the historically hard line they have taken on territorial concessions.

The hard-liners appeared buoyed by the nationalistic tone of Netanyahu's speech and tough conditions he attached after caving to U.S. pressure to endorse a Palestinian state. Palestinians pronounced his offer a nonstarter because of these same conditions.

After decades of opposition, Netanyahu announced on national TV late Sunday that he was prepared to begin negotiations on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. But he insisted that a future Palestine be demilitarized and rejected the aspirations of Palestinian refugees to return to homes in Israel.

Those conditions, along with demands that Israel retain sovereignty over a united Jerusalem and continue to expand West Bank settlements, enraged the Palestinians, who accused him of sabotaging negotiations.

"He announced a series of conditions and qualifications that render a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state impossible," said Palestinian official Saeb Erekat.

But it won him support from hard-liners inside his government who historically have been cool to the idea of Palestinian independence.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the most powerful hard-liner in Netanyahu's government, said the prime minister's speech outlined "the balance between our aspirations for peace and the aspiration for security."

"Netanyahu opened the door to the Palestinians and the Arab nations to begin peace talks, and we hope the other side will take up the offer to renew negotiations," Lieberman said after the speech.

Eli Yishai, head of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas party, said Netanyahu "stressed his commitment to plausible peace and security."

Shas, Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu and the centrist Labor Party are Netanyahu's main coalition allies. Labor has long endorsed the concept of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu spoke after months of pressure from Washington to endorse Palestinian statehood, as successive Israeli governments before his have done.

The Palestinians want to establish a state that includes all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem -- areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War. Netanyahu ruled out sharing Jerusalem and made no mention of uprooting Jewish settlements built in the West Bank. Instead, he said existing settlements should be allowed to expand while negotiations proceed.

Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, said Monday the Israeli leader had merely laid out an opening position that outlined his vision of a future peace agreement.

"These are not preconditions, but they're essential requirements for success in these talks," he told reporters.

Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief, said the speech was important because of the Palestinian reaction.

"I think what was presented yesterday reflects a broad Israeli consensus," Yaalon told Army Radio. "I think it was important to juxtapose the broad Israeli consensus with the Palestinian rejectionism, which we exposed yesterday."

Most dissent came from opposition politicians and backbenchers in Netanyahu's ruling Likud Party.

"The prime minister knows that if he promotes it, he will face a strong opposition within the party, within the coalition," said Likud lawmaker Danny Danon. "Deep inside himself, Prime Minister Netanyahu knows that a Palestinian state poses a major threat for the security of Israel."

But among Likud's heavyweights, even Cabinet Minister Benny Begin -- who left Netanyahu's first government more than a decade ago following territorial concessions to the Palestinians -- did not openly clash with him.

"I clearly do not accept the concept of the establishment of a sovereign, Arab state in Judea, Samari and the Gaza Strip," he said, using the biblical name for the West Bank. "History has shown that a sovereign power, even if its powers are limited at the outset, later throws off these restrictions," he told Israel Radio.

But he didn't threaten to resign.

In other developments, international Mideast envoy Tony Blair visited the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, where he urged quick repairs to infrastructure damaged in Israel's recent offensive.

Gaza's reconstruction has been stifled by a partial blockade by Israel and Egypt that has been in force since the Islamic militant Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

It was Blair's second visit to Gaza since he became envoy in 2007. Blair did not meet with Hamas, which is boycotted by the international community as a terrorist group.

[Associated Press; By AMY TEIBEL]

Associated Press writer Joseph Marks contributed to this report.

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