ISRAEL OFFERS, LEBANON REJECTS PEACE TALKS

Prime Minister Outlines Policy at Opening of Knesset Session
- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ( Prime Minister's Office)

The Prime Minister of Israel addressed the opening of the Knesset winter session on Monday:

• A Hamas government is currently ruling the Palestinian Authority. Unfortunately, this government does not fulfill the minimal preconditions outlined by the international community, which would enable it to become a possible partner for negotiations. As long as the Hamas government fails to recognize the State of Israel, accept and implement the agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and act to terminate violence and eradicate terrorism, including attacks on our southern communities, we cannot conduct dialogue with it.
• The State of Israel has demonstrated many times its willingness to live in peace and good neighborly relations with the Palestinian people. We do not wish the Palestinian people to continue suffering. On the contrary. We prefer a thriving Palestinian society, free of humanitarian hardship - a society which enjoys economic welfare and which operates in cooperation with the State of Israel....We have no desire and no intention to rule over the Palestinians forever. If the day comes when the Palestinian government accepts the preconditions which will make it a legitimate player, it will allow the opening of a comprehensive political horizon, which will change the reality in the region.
• I wish to use this podium to call upon the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Fuad Siniora, to meet with me directly, not through mediators, in order to make peace between us and Lebanon....Israel can be a natural and serious partner to a peace-seeking government in Lebanon.
• Iran is deceiving the international community. It is dragging its feet and trying to buy time in order to complete its dangerous nuclear program. The Iranian threat is an existential threat to Israel; it is an existential threat to world peace....The world must make certain that Iran does not possess nuclear weapons.

See also Lebanon Rejects Israeli Call for Peace Talks (Reuters)