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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Ministers call for Peretz to resign |
| 2006-11-21 |
| Members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee called on Monday for the resignation of Defense Minster Amir Peretz. The demand followed Sunday's telephone conversation between Peretz and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, in which the defense minister urged Abbas to exercise his authority and do everything possible to stop Kassam rocket attacks against Israel. Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin said that Peretz's "flame had died," and that he never tried any new tactics. Beilin also called for the government to disband. "On Saturday, one of [Olmert's] ministers says that we must eliminate the Hamas leadership and that Abbas is no longer relevant, and on Monday a different minister says that he spoke to the PA chairman and requested a cease-fire. There is no policy and no methodology." MK Danny Naveh (Likud) reacted cynically to the Peretz-Abbas conversation, saying that the meeting should be cut short since "any minute, Peretz will get a phone call from Abbas." He added that Israel's security was disintegrating and that Hamas and Hizbullah were getting stronger. Naveh's fellow Likud MK, Yuval Steinitz, said that Peretz should have resigned long ago with the rest of the government. "Instead of proposing solutions he is pleading with Abbas," he said. Steinitz called on the IDF to embark on an operation similar to Operation Defensive Shield. |
| Posted by:Fred |