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Olmert's peace talks with Abbas stir dissent in Kadima ranks
By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's efforts to reach an agreement of principles with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ahead of the international summit scheduled to take place in Washington in November is stirring considerable dissent in the ranks of his party, Kadima. According to party sources, a number of MKs and ministers have raised concern that Olmert is proceeding without sufficient backing inside Kadima, which they warn may pose a threat to the party's future.

Among the Kadima MKs and ministers who have expressed concern, mostly over press reports on developments in the Olmert-Abbas talks, are MK Marina Solodkin, MK David Tal, MK Otniel Schneller, MK Ze'ev Elkin, MK Shaim Hermesh, and Minister of Public Security Avi Dichter.

Dichter was particularly concerned about the possibility of changes to the Negev border, a scenario that was reported in the media as having been raised in the Olmert-Abbas talks.

"From anonymous or other sources we are told that the Negev border will undergo changes," Dichter said.

"There is no chance that the necessary majority will be found in the State of Israel for making changes to the Negev border. No one in Israel has that kind of mandate. In Kadima, this matter will not be able to pass by even the guard at the gate of the headquarters in Petah Tikva," he asserted.

For his part, Olmert ally, Vice Premier Haim Ramon, sought to calm the atmosphere vowing that every step that will be taken will be preceded with the right kind of political preparation within the party, the coalition and the voting public.

Ramon has initiated a discussion within the party, scheduled to take place on September 20, whose focus will be the agreement of principles with Abbas and ways for preparing the necessary political ground within the party.

"The prime minister is sufficiently experienced to know that it is necessary to prepare the political ground, hold a dialogue with the party members, with the ministers and the MKs as well as the members of the party [central] committee," Ramon said. "We will not repeat what happened with [Ehud] Barak in 2000," he assured his party colleagues.

However, it is uncertain whether Ramon has gauged the opposition to the developments in the Olmert-Abbas talks correctly.

Minister of Strategic Threats, Avigdor Lieberman, has already expressed his party's opposition to the talks and has demanded clarifications on behalf of Yisrael Beitenu.

The other senior coalition party, Shas, has still not clarified its stance on the matter.

On Monday, a special discussion will be held in the Knesset plenum, at the behest of Likud and the National Union, on the agreement of principles.

"This could be dynamite inside the party and bring about divisions," said a Kadima source. "This could be just like after the disengagement [from the Gaza Strip] for Likud. The implication for the Prime Minister leading along a path that does not go through his party can be disastrous. He needs to take into account that there is opposition inside Kadima. We are not Meretz," the source said.

MK Shai Hermesh, formerly a member of Labor and a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza in the Negev, is very troubled by the talk of changes to the border.

"I am paranoid. I have two traumas from Ehud Barak - December 2000 when he [proposed to] give up the Halutza Dunes and the Geneva Initiative. The meaning of moving the fence 1000 meters is to kill us. It means bringing the fence into our dining hall and tunnels into our yards. I am not ready to pay the price of settlements in the Negev."

Hermesh vowed to come out against anyone who puts forth such a proposal. "Olmert cannot make such a move without political backing," he said.

However, Hermesh also supports the Olmert-Abbas talks.

"There will be no agreement on principles without Knesset support. No one has the right to go to the summit without the Knesset approving the principles."

MK Solodkin, formerly of Likud, insists that at least the Kadima members must be consulted about any agreement.

"We have the right as members of the ruling party to hear what is going on. The prime minister needs to hold a meeting and tell us what precisely he is doing. We have no right to make more mistakes," she said.

Solodkin also said that Olmert has no moral authority to travel to the summit before the final conclusions of the Winograd Committee on the Second Lebanon War are published.

"If a week before the summit a report with damaging conclusions for the politicians is released, there will be a crisis, and it is inappropriate [for Olmert to go to Washington]."

Ramon rejects this claim as "ludicrous."

Olmert's peace talks with Abbas stir dissent in Kadima ranks (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/900041.html)