week. The visit had two main goals: Meet with Jewish community leaders at
the United Jewish Communities General Assembly
administration officials.
Prime Minister Olmert discussed both his address to the UJC GA
and his meeting with US President Bush
2. Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, IDF
Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz and ISA Director Yuval Diskin briefed
ministers on security and diplomatic issues from last week.
Defense Minister Peretz discussed events in Sderot and noted that the local
population had been hit, including one woman who was fatally wounded. He
said that Israel was faced with two principal security issues in the south:
The accumulation of weapons and armaments in the Gaza Strip and how to deal
with Kassam missiles. These are separate issues and are being dealt with
separately.
Defense Minister Peretz discussed the IDF in Beit Hanoun
(
Israel knew what needed to be done in order to reduce Kassam fire and push
the launchers into areas in which they will be compelled to operate less
freely. He stressed that IDF actions in general, and in Southern Command in
particular, are important and vital and added that they – as well as the
senior IDF command, including the General Staff, Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen.
Halutz, etc. – must enjoy full and unequivocal Government backing.
IDF Chief-of-Staff Halutz and ISA Director Diskin briefed ministers on the
military and economic situation of the Palestinian population in the Gaza
Strip, Fatah-Hamas relations and efforts to establish a unity government in
the Palestinian Authority.
Foreign Minister Livni discussed the recent UN General Assembly session,
which adopted a resolution on the events in Beit Hanoun
(
briefed ministers on the EU foreign ministers statement regarding the events
in Beit Hanoun (
Foreign Minister Livni referred to the Arab League decision to end the
economic siege of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and said that the decision
would be devoid of practical effect since Arab banks will prevent financial
transfers to Hamas as long as US banks threaten to impose sanctions on
international elements involved in transferring funds to Hamas.
Foreign Minister Livni discussed the controversy over the wording of the
draft decision to impose sanctions on Iran and Spanish Foreign Minister
Miguel Angel Moratinos’s initiative to convene an international conference
to advance Israel-Palestinian negotiations. The Foreign Minister made it
clear to her Spanish counterpart that Israel has no intention of supporting
an initiative that it is not coordinated with it.
Prime Minister Olmert said that a technocratic government was not being
formed in the PA but one that is the product of a political agreement
between Fatah and Hamas to establish a national unity government in which
there will be members from Hamas, Fatah and other groups within Palestinian
society. It will be necessary to assess this government’s platform and
commitments.
Regarding the population of Sderot, Prime Minister Olmert stressed that he
has always claimed that any local leadership must encourage and strengthen
its residents and not just speak on their behalf, however stridently. He
said: “I must say that last week I was impressed that Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal
and other public leaders there have taken responsibility. I welcome this.”
Regarding the tragedy in Beit Hanoun, Prime Minister Olmert said, “I always
say – whenever innocents are killed by our actions – that we see this as a
failure. But the Palestinian terrorist organizations see it as policy.
They fire Kassams solely in order to kill civilians. Now, when I see the
inflexibility of the international community, of those who preach morality
at us, I say: Do not preach morality at us. Do not send commissions of
inquiry. Do not investigate us. We will refuse to the hypocritical and
self-righteous game by those in the international community that try to
compel us to act like we accept responsibility for war crimes. This will
never happen. We will not cooperate with such an approach. Let this be
clear. I do not think that we could agree to such an or to any
similar action. We give full backing to Chief-of-Staff Halutz and to all of
the security forces in their struggle against terrorism. You exemplify a
moral army and we flatly reject any attempt to cast moral aspersions on the
IDF.”
3. Pursuant to the 1959 Civil Service Law (Appointments), the Cabinet
approved the appointment of Rani Fintzi as Director of the Interior Ministry
Local Authorities Administration in place of Yitzhak Balak.
4. Pursuant to its authority under the 1977 Airports Authority Law, the
Cabinet approved the appointment of Ovadiah Eli as Chairman of the Airports
Authority Council.
BreuerPress-info
