Barak to take painful regional concessions

Israel Radio on Monday quoted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak as saying that, "Giving territorial concessions is a difficult and painful matter," adding that Israel will not hesitate in taking "the needed decisive decisions in this regard."

In a speech he delivered on Monday in celebrations in Negev on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of the death of the first Israeli prime minister, David Ben Guirion, Barak added that Israel is approaching another decisive crossroads in its history that requires taking up causes that will "determine the decisions of its future."

He asserted that his government will not permit any side whatsoever to defy the supremacy of the law and the decisions of the legal government.