Netanyahu Promises To Protect Begin's Grave

Bibi: My gov't will keep J'lem united

Likud chair Binyamin Netanyahu toured the Mount of Olives on Monday afternoon, and promised to keep Jerusalem united if he should win the February 10 election.

Netanyahu's advisers said he came to the controversial site in the capital in order to bring attention to reports that his main competition, Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, had agreed to give up portions of the city in negotiations over the past 14 months with her Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qureia...

..."We did not return to Jerusalem after praying for it to be rebuilt for 2000 years in order to give it up," Netanyahu told a throng of reporters from around the world at the City of David. "We did not unite the city in order to divide it, and my government will maintain a united Jerusalem. A sane country does not give its capital to its enemies."

...He then visited a lookout point over the Mount of Olives cemetery and the Temple Mount, where former Likud prime minister Menahem Begin is buried.

"The people buried here prayed that there would be a day when Jerusalem would be rebuilt," Netanyahu said. "The foreign press is here because they understand that this election is about whether our capital will be given to our enemies. The Likud and I are committed to maintaining a united Jerusalem with defensible borders. But for that, we need as large a Likud as possible, because only the Likud can maintain a united Jerusalem."