Livni: “Arabs who decide to stay in Israel, should accept it as a Jewish state”

Tuesday June 24, 2008 06:01 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Arabs48 news website reported on Monday that the Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, stated that the Arabs and Palestinians who live within Israel should accept the Jewish State with all that the word means.

Tzipi LIvni

She added that the Arabs in Israel “are equal citizens and have the right to define themselves as Palestinians, but if there are two states and they chose to remain in the Jewish State, they should recognize it as Jewish”.

She claimed that the Palestinian State would be the solution for the issue of the refugees, as “Israel is not an option for them”, Israeli Ynet News reported, “When the conflict is resolved, Arabs must accept Israel as a Jewish state and must recognize that it is the homeland of all Jews”.

She added that the International Community finds it hard to accept Israel’s definition as a Jewish state.

 Livni stated that she knows that Israel’s image is not good, and declared that some countries are trying to void Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.

Speaking at the Tel Aviv University National Research Center, Livni said that there is a crisis in Israel and that this crisis is caused by the lack of political stability and that all reforms remain just headlines in local newspapers.

She stated that the Israeli public is losing faith in politics and the governmental system, and added that the elected officials are required to conduct reforms.

Livni also said that usually ministers do not want to implement plans of reform put in place by their predecessors “because they won’t be credited for them”.

Commenting on the truce agreement with the Palestinians, Livni said that Israel achieved a short-term truce which could have a future strategic price.

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