An ultranationalist Israeli minister threatened on Sunday to quit the cabinet if the core issues at the heart of the Middle East conflict are raised at a peace conference later this year.
Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting, Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman also presented a document outlining his vision for peace with the Palestinians, including giving up Arab population centres inside Israel. "If the conference lists the problems between the two sides, we have no problem with that," he told army radio.
"But as long as the Palestinians have not met their obligations to fight terror, it is wrong to move to the next stage and hold talks on the core issues," said Lieberman, who is also a deputy prime minister.
Israel and the Palestinians are currently engaged in intensive talks to draw up a document outlining a solution for the decades-old conflict ahead of a peace conference due to convene in the United States in November or December.
Lieberman's peace proposal remains vague over the borders of the future Palestinian state, but leaves Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to make their capital, under full Israeli control.
It also reiterates Lieberman's controversial call to transfer densely populated Israeli Arab towns to the Palestinian state in order to guarantee a Jewish majority in Israel.
"We must not accept a reality where a Palestinian state is created without a single Jew and on the other hand Israel becomes a bi-national state with more than 20 percent of minorities," the document said.
The document, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, also suggested deploying international forces in the West Bank if the Palestinians prove unable to stop "terror activity" against Israel.
"Should the Palestinians prove unable to create security forces that can stop the terror activity, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will fill the vacuum," it said.
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