Israel's demand rejected by palestinians

I was just talking with a friend last night about how Israel has never made any demands throughout this entire "peace process." Well they have now. Olmert has demanded that he be allowed to give the palestinians 98.5% of Judea and Samaria.

Lucky for us, and especially for the nearly 400,000 Jews who live there, Abu Mazen has refused to concede to this demand.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected an Israeli peace proposal because it does not provide for a contiguous Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, Abbas's office said on Tuesday.

Olmert's proposal does not offer a solution to competing claims to the holy city of Jerusalem, and would only be implemented once Abbas reined in militants and re-established control of the Gaza Strip, which Hamas seized a year ago.

Under the proposal, Israel would give to the Palestinians some 92.7 percent of the occupied West Bank, plus all of the Gaza Strip, according to Western and Palestinian officials briefed on the negotiations.

In exchange for West Bank land that Israel would keep, Olmert proposed a 5.3 percent land swap giving the Palestinians a desert territory adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

Olmert's proposal first emerged several months ago and was published in detail on Tuesday by Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, prompting Abu Rdainah's response.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, Abbas's spokesman, told the official WAFA news agency Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan showed a "lack of seriousness."

"The Israeli proposal is not acceptable," Abbas's spokesman said. "The Palestinian side will only accept a Palestinian state with territorial continuity, with holy Jerusalem as its capital, without settlements, and on the June 4, 1967 boundaries." He called the Israeli proposal a "waste of time."

Abu Rdainah was referring to the borders that existed prior to the 1967 Middle East war in which Israel seized Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

Kudos to al Reuters for getting that last bit right.

Arutz Sheva has more details:

Implementation in 2 Steps

The deal would be carried out in two stages, according to the proposal detailed in the Hebrew daily Haaretz.

The first stage is dependent on Olmert’s ability to sell the plan to the Israeli public and involves the voluntary abandonment of communities outside the proposed border, with legislation to compensate Israelis who relocate on their own.
It is anticipated that many of the voluntary expellees would move to new housing units to be built in the remaining seven percent of Yesha to be left to Israel as soon as the borders are agreed upon and an agreement in principle is signed.

The second stage, which, according to the report, would only take place once the PA completes “a series of internal reforms and [are] capable of carrying out the entire agreement” involves forcibly expelling the remaining Jews from their homes east of the border.

Deferring the Issue of Jerusalem, No ‘Right of Return’

The proposal does not define the status of Jerusalem. Both Olmert and Abbas agreed to shelve the issue for the time being, recognizing that this was a problem that could not be solved in the near future.

However, Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza have constantly been assured that the PA leadership will not accept any agreement for a state that does not include all of the land that was restored to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, including eastern Jerusalem.

Under the proposal, the so-called PA Arab “right of return” was rejected outright, and exists only in context of a “return” to PA territory.

This is in contrast to the PA demand that Israel allow some five million foreign Arab descendants of those who fled the state during the 1948 war to immigrate to Israel and reclaim homes or land where their families lived generations ago.

The plan also calls for a PA state that would be demilitarized and without an army. The present security force, trained by top brass from the US Armed Forces, would be retained as a police force.

However, the PA is demanding a security force capable of defending against “outside threats,” according to the report. It is not clear which “outside threats” the PA leadership referred to.

Looks like that's the end of that peace process. Perhaps the palestinians will be consoled by the $80 million they're getting from Kuwait and the 72 million shekels (US$23 million) from Israel.

"These funds ... are for paying the salaries of Abbas's people," [Israeli] Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai told public radio.

Comments

[Kae Gregory]

Sometimes, it's good to be hated. And the Palestinians - they have to believe it's good to hate! Heck, they're getting paid for it.