From the Washington Post:
JERUSALEM, Feb. 23 — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dismissed Israel’s top negotiator in Gaza truce talks for publicly criticizing Olmert’s demand that Palestinians hand over a captured Israeli soldier before any deal is clinched, officials said Monday.
The move threatens to disrupt the talks just weeks before Olmert is succeeded by the hawkish Binyamin Netanyahu, who wants the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers toppled and is considered likely to take a tougher line in the Egyptian-brokered truce negotiations.
Olmert abruptly announced last week that Israel would not reopen Gaza’s long-blockaded borders — the main Israeli concession sought by Hamas — unless Hamas-affiliated fighters first freed Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who was seized in a June 2006 cross-border raid.
Amos Gilad, the fired negotiator, opposed linking the truce deal with Shalit and criticized Olmert’s strategy in an interview last week with the Israeli newspaper Maariv.
Here’s a doozy.
Netanyahu could piece together a coalition of right-wingers who take a hard line against territorial concessions to the Palestinians and have serious disputes among themselves on religious issues. But the Likud party leader has expressed hope he can bring moderates such as Barak and centrist leader Tzipi Livni into his coalition to win international support and a stable parliamentary majority. Livni said Sunday that she and Netanyahu were still at odds over efforts to make peace with the Palestinians.
It seems to me that everyone wants peace in that group… except for the Palestinians (Hamas, the PA and most of their constituents).
Tags: Amos Gilad, Ehud Olmert, Livni, Netanyahu
