JERUSALEM, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a bond with the Palestinian authority could be forged with the release of a kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier.
Speaking at the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday, Olmert said Israel would reconsider its stance regarding the Palestinian coalition if it released IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit from custody, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The meeting also gave Olmert a chance to clarify his troubled relationship with Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz.
"There doesn't have to be an intimate relationship between the prime minister and the defense minister," he was quoted as saying. "It's not written in any fundamental law or in the weekly Torah portion."
Some right-wing parliamentary members in attendance took time to criticize the prime minister and call for his resignation for his political troubles.
The report said that key among the criticisms leveled against Olmert was his alleged inability to adequately negotiate with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
