Shas says will quit coalition if peace talks continue amid Qassam fire
Chairman Eli Yishai says haredi party will resign from Olmert's coalition if negotiations with Palestinians carried out while rocket fire from Gaza continues. Netanyahu to Shas: Do the right thing
Shas chairman Eli Yishai said Monday his party would resign from the coalition "if the current negotiations (with the Palestinians) progress beyond the current point while Israel continues to sustain Qassam rocket attacks".
Speaking to faction members, Yishai, who also serves as vice premier and minister of industry, trade, and labor, said violent occurrences in the West Bank would also prompt the haredi party to quit the Kadima-led government.
Following last week's suicide attack in Dimona, which left one Israeli dead and several others wounded, Yishai called for the immediate suspension of the ongoing peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.
'It's all talk at this point'
Shas has been reducing the government's freedom of movement in negotiations with the Palestinians and it seems that signals from Olmert's haredi coalition partner are becoming sterner and indicate that the political hoops are getting tighter. At first, Shas would not allow core issues to be discussed with the Palestinians. Later, the party's leaders clarified that no compromise would be made over Jerusalem.
The matter even came up in a conversation between Yishai and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice four months ago. "With us, a groom under the wedding canopy says 'if I forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its cunning.' I am telling you unequivocally, there is nothing to speak about concerning Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not no the table for discussion," Yishai told Rice.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the fragile coalition on Monday, telling Likud faction members that "in light of reports regarding the negotiations on Jerusalem, I feel obliged to turn to our friends in Shas and say: 'You share our concern over Jerusalem and (the state of Israel's) security, and I call on you to do the right thing - and that is to thwart these dangerous steps and resign from the government'."
A Shas official told Ynet that "currently there is no progress in the negotiations (with the Palestinians); it's all talk at this point. But, if (Foreign Minister) Tzipi Livni tells us that progress has been made on the core issues, meaning Jerusalem, the refugees and the permanent borders, while Qassams are still fired at Israel, then Shas will resign.
