Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday following the Palestinian attack against an IDF position near Kerem Shalom and asked for her help in pressuring Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to take action to release the abducted soldier.
"This is Abu Mazen's test. We expect him to act for the soldier's release and we expect him to stay in the Gaza Strip and handle the crisis," Livni told her American counterpart, referring to Abbas.
The Foreign Ministry embarked on a public relations campaign yesterday and instructed its missions abroad to make it clear that the Hamas attack occurred "at a crossing that is used for the transfer of goods and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip."
The government of Israel "considers the Hamas government responsible for all future implications, including economic and humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip, as a result of their attack."
At home, Yisrael Beitenu chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to dismiss his defense minister, Amir Peretz.
MK Zevulun Orlev, head of the National Religious Party, said that the IDF must do everything to find the soldier and destroy the nests of terrorists.
MK Israel Hasson (Yisrael Beitenu) called on the "government that was able to make painful concessions to start demonstrating its abilities to safeguard our sovereignty and the lives of our children."
