Middle East Conflict

Israeli FM accepts idea of palestinian state

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-11-14 10:39

LOS ANGLES - Visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday said that she accepted the idea of a Palestinian state.

In the keynote speech at a meeting of American Jewish community leaders, Livni said Israel could work with Arab moderates to establish "two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security."

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Israel would have to give up some land "to assure our security, " she said, on the first day of the annual general assembly of United Jewish Communities, the umbrella group for the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the 154 other Jewish community federations around North America.

In her speech, Livni deemed Iran as an enormous threat to the international community, saying it employed the Hezbollah militia as a "proxy" in what turned into 34 days of warfare in Lebanon and northern Israel.

While accusing Iran of seeking to "develop a nuclear weapon, she called on the international community to stand up to its threat.

The four-day conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center highlights the concerns among North American Jewish leaders over Israel's security, as well as global tensions and terrorism, following this summer's bloodshed in the areas along the Israel-Lebanon border.

The meeting, attended by 4,000 US and Canadian Jewish community leaders and activists, is the largest of its kind in North America.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is on a visit in Washington, will address the meeting on Tuesday afternoon.