Shalom hosted 10 Likud ministers and MKs and hundreds of party activists in a show of force at a Tel Aviv wedding hall. Top settler leaders also attended the event as part of a lobbying effort inside the Likud that they hope could prevent Netanyahu from implementing a settlement freeze.
"We are here to save the path of the Likud," Shalom said. "I think paying the price of freezing settlements to get a meeting with Abu Mazen is not the right thing to do right now. Were we in the Likud elected to implement the policies of others? If we agree before negotiations to recognize a Palestinian state and freeze settlements, on what will we negotiate?"
Shalom said that the fate of the settlements should be left for final-status negotiations and warned that agreeing to a freeze now would lead to an inevitable conflict once Israel decided to build again in the West Bank. He said Netanyahu should have insisted on this in his talks with Obama's administration.
"People say if we say no to the US, it would cause a conflict with America," Shalom said. "But America asked the Saudis for concessions to Israel and the Saudis said no. Did it cause a fight between the US and Saudi Arabia?"
Shalom said he would back an effort initiated by Likud MK Danny Danon to obtain the signatures necessary to force the prime minister to convene the Likud central committee for a vote on freezing settlement construction.
Sources close to Netanyahu responded that following a weekend of intense lobbying of Likud ministers, he had nearly wall-to-wall support and they were not concerned if Shalom would be the exception to that rule.
"We are here to save the path of the Likud," Shalom said. "I think paying the price of freezing settlements to get a meeting with Abu Mazen is not the right thing to do right now. Were we in the Likud elected to implement the policies of others? If we agree before negotiations to recognize a Palestinian state and freeze settlements, on what will we negotiate?"
Shalom said that the fate of the settlements should be left for final-status negotiations and warned that agreeing to a freeze now would lead to an inevitable conflict once Israel decided to build again in the West Bank. He said Netanyahu should have insisted on this in his talks with Obama's administration.
"People say if we say no to the US, it would cause a conflict with America," Shalom said. "But America asked the Saudis for concessions to Israel and the Saudis said no. Did it cause a fight between the US and Saudi Arabia?"
Shalom said he would back an effort initiated by Likud MK Danny Danon to obtain the signatures necessary to force the prime minister to convene the Likud central committee for a vote on freezing settlement construction.
Sources close to Netanyahu responded that following a weekend of intense lobbying of Likud ministers, he had nearly wall-to-wall support and they were not concerned if Shalom would be the exception to that rule.
