January 24, 2006	Tuesday	Zilhaj 23, 1426

JERUSALEM, Jan 23: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Monday acceptance within the international community of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state would erode with time as conflict with the Palestinians dragged on.

Unless progress was made towards establishing a Palestinian state as mandated by a US-backed roadmap, Ms Livni said in a speech, pressure could grow to turn Israel into a bi-national state in which Israelis and Palestinians would share power.

With a higher Palestinian birth rate, that could mean the end of a Jewish majority in what is now Israel, she said, giving voice to an argument interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has raised for trading occupied land for peace.

“I say that time works to our disadvantage, not only from the standpoint of demographic numbers ... but also from the standpoint of the legitimacy of a state for the Jewish people in the eyes of the international community,” Ms Livni told a policymakers’ forum near Tel Aviv.

Ms Livni stopped short of urging a quick resumption of stalled peace talks, but said Israel should not ‘sit and look to stagnation as a kind of solution, but try to find solutions’.

Ms Livni, a former official in the Mossad intelligence service, is widely seen in Israel as a rising political star. She is number two behind Mr Olmert in Kadima, the centrist party founded by Ariel Sharon, who was incapacitated by a stroke on Jan 4.

Opinion polls predict Kadima will win Israel’s March 28 general election. —Reuters