Friday's meeting between Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu and Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, billed as a last-ditch attempt to form a national unity government, ended without a breakthrough, with Livni insisting that she was heading for the opposition.
Livni said Netanyahu failed to make a commitment that the government's platform would include pursuing an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution.
"I came for a second meeting with the Likud leader to hear his vision and the way he believes is correct," Livni said after the meeting in Tel Aviv. "Israel is facing challenges and I told him that Kadima would support the correct moves made by the government."
"But to deal with the challenges, I wanted three basic principles that you know of," she told reporters. "Two states for two peoples is not an empty slogan. It is the only way Israel can remain Jewish and fight terror. It's a fundamental issue."
Livni said that a unity government would have been possible provided it included plans for a two-state solution, changes to the electoral system and other Interior Ministry reforms, lamenting, however, that Netanyahu was not committed on those subjects, and pledging to be "a responsible" opposition.
"This meeting has ended without agreements on issues that I see as essential," Livni said. "There could be a government that advances these issues. At the moment, based on the discussions I held in the adjacent room, that government won't be Netanyahu's."
Nevertheless, Netanyahu said after the meeting that he had been "prepared to go very far" to form a unity government, indicating that, despite her pre-and post-election promises, Livni did not have the same "willingness for unity," which he said was particularly vital now, considering the escalating Iranian threat and Israeli unemployment.
Despite Livni's claim that the new government's platform would not be to her party's liking, Netanyahu insisted that he had offered her "full partnership" in setting its guidelines.
"Unity requires compromise and I was prepared to go in that direction," he said. "I also offered an equal number of ministries, including two out of the top three, I said I intended to move peace negotiations forward, and that we would act to advance civil unions and to introduce electoral reforms."
"If there's a will, there's a way; and if there is a will there is unity," he continued.
"In my opinion, the gaps can be bridged, but I was met with total rejection and a refusal to even agree to set up dialogue teams in order to strike a partnership," he went on. "I didn't find that Livni had the willingness for unity."
