JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said his Jewish Home Party will not accept an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement based on the 1967 lines.
“No more word games: the 1967 lines mean dividing Jerusalem and giving up the Western Wall, the Temple Mount and the Old City. In what way will our history remember a leader that agrees to give up Jerusalem? We won’t sit in such a government,” Bennett declared Tuesday during a speech in Tel Aviv at the Institute for National Security Studies, Ynet reported.
“Will those who pressure us today die for us tomorrow?” he added, stating that Jews “are not occupiers in our land.”
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come to a peace agreement with the Palestinians at a conference Monday at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
“Even a very stupid prime minister who makes peace will get positive press. But a prime minister who is an idiot will not make peace,” Olmert said. He added that his speech was not meant to criticize Netanyahu, who he called on to make “tough choices.”
Olmert said Israel would reap many benefits from making peace and that it would change all of the Middle East.
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