It is still surreal to think that FM Livni would come to this conference and claim that her government is doing the right thing in negotiating the status of Jerusalem and did the right thing in forcing out 7000 Jewish citizens from the Gaza. The times they are a changin'.......

Foreign Minister, Chief Rabbi Square Off at Jerusalem Conference

by Ezra HaLevi
Arutz Sheva
February 19, 2008

(IsraelNN.com) The fifth annual Jerusalem Conference kicked off with a discussion on the future of Jerusalem. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni presented the government’s position and was harshly criticized.

The snowy Jerusalem skyline as seen from the Regency Hotel on Mt. Scopus, where the Jerusalem Conference was held(Photo: Ezra HaLevi)

Chief Rabbi Scolds Foreign Minister for Negotiating J’lemEven before Livni took the podium, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yonah Metzger, who usually refrains from any sort of political pronunciations, addressed the Foreign Minister directly, asking her to use her role as chief negotiator “with our enemies” to prevent Jerusalem’s division. Recent reports from diplomatic meetings and Arab negotiators have Livni engaging in wrangling over the relinquishing of parts of the capital.

"Madam Foreign Minister, you come from a family of lovers of Israel that grew up on the importance of the integrity of the land,” Rabbi Metzger said. “Jerusalem is above and beyond this conflict. Our right to Jerusalem is a proven, historic right. When the Muslims pray in the mosques on the Temple Mount, they pray with their backs to the site of the Temple; they pray toward Mecca with their backs to Jerusalem. Talking about Jerusalem harms us. If we unite for the sake of our capital, that its division cannot be discussed, we shall win it.”

“Paratroopers’ Western Wall Tears Guide the Negotiations”FM Livni took the podium and declared, in her only reference to Jerusalem, that “the tears of the paratroopers at the Western Wall and the prayers uttered on the Temple Mount are what guide me in the negotiations.”
Livni said she rejects distinctions between the political right and left, and sought to prove that there is a united center that seeks to create a Palestinian state for the sake of Israel’s future. “We all want peace and those who want negotiations also love the Land of Israel,” she said. “We have shared goals as well: a Jewish, democratic state that will be safe for its people.”

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni addressing the Jerusalem Conference(Photo: Ezra HaLevi)
The Foreign Minister said that maintaining such a state requires the establishment of Palestine and thereby defended negotiating even while under attack, as well as negotiating despite the knowledge that the Arab side cannot implement its commitments. "Stopping the negotiations won’t stop the terror attacks,” she said. “Terror must be answered with force, but simultaneously we must forge a process with the moderate forces. While it is true that they are still unable to implement agreements, I believe that now is the time, before it will become too late. Time is not on our side. Livni also said she still believes the Disengagement was a good idea. "I voted in favor of the process that evicted 7,000 Jews from their homes,” she told the audience. “And I still believe this should have been done.”

For the rest of the article:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125309