Israel refused to release 26 out of 104 Palestinian convicts that had been pardoned according to agreements with Palestine made in 2013. Palestine threatened to file bids to join 15 international organizations and treaties in response, RIA Novosti reports.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called it blackmailing. He expressed a readiness to continue peace talks with Palestine at any time and any place. The diplomat said that the events may develop into the formation of an anti-government coalition or off-year elections. The Israel Our Home Party would not want the former because it would have to pay big sums of money to gain support of an alternate coalition. Both they and Likud would prefer elections instead.
Some political analysts predict that the failure of the ruling coalition will provoke parties on the left to quit the ruling coalition. They believe that concessions for Palestine for the sake of the negotiation process would scare off Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s partners on the right with ultra-religious organizations being invited to fill that gap.
