[Internazionale] Olmert ad Abbas: noi lasceremo la Cisgiordania se
voi riprenderete Gaza
L'altra Lombardia - SU LA TESTA
laltralombardia at laltralombardia.it
Tue Aug 12 14:53:53 CEST 2008
Il primo ministro israeliano Olmert ha presentato
al presidente palestinese Abbas
un piano per il ritiro dalla
Cisgiordania, attuabile solo dopo che
l'Autorità Palestinese abbia ripreso il controllo
della striscia di Gaza.
Il piano prevede in pratica il
mantenimento di tutti gli insediamenti,
poiché la demarcazione dei confini
seguirebbe il percorso del Muro dell'Apartheid, ma ai
Palestinesi sarebbe concesso il corridoio di
accesso tra Cisgiordania e Gaza. Che
generosità!
L'altra Lombardia - SU LA TESTA
Last update - 13:49 12/08/2008
Olmert to PA:
We'll quit West Bank when you retake Gaza
By Aluf
Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has presented
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with a
proposal for an Israeli withdrawal
from the West Bank, to take
place after Abbas' forces have
retaken Gaza, as part of an agreement in principle
on borders, refugees and security
arrangements between Israel
and a future Palestinian state.
Olmert, who met with Abbas this week,
feels there is time to reach an agreement during
his remaining time in office. He
is now awaiting a decision
from the Palestinians.
The centerpiece of Olmert's
detailed proposal is the
suggested permanent border, which would be based
on an Israeli withdrawal from most of the
West Bank. In return for the
land retained by Israel in
the West Bank, the Palestinians would receive
alternative land in the Negev, adjacent to
the Gaza Strip. The
Palestinians would also enjoy free
passage between Gaza and the West Bank without any
security checks, the proposal
says.
A senior
Israeli official said the
Palestinians were given preliminary maps of the
proposed borders.
Under Olmert's offer, Israel
would keep 7 percent of the West Bank,
while the Palestinians would receive territory
equivalent to 5.5 percent of West
Bank. Israel views the
passage between Gaza and the West Bank
as compensating for this difference: Though it
would officially remain in Israeli
hands, it would connect the
two halves of the Palestinian state -
a connection the Palestinians did not enjoy before
1967, when the Gaza Strip was
under Egyptian control and
the West Bank was part of Jordan.
The land to be annexed to Israel would
include the large settlement blocs, and the border
would be similar to the
present route of the
separation fence. Israel would keep Ma'aleh
Adumim, Gush Etzion, the settlements
surrounding Jerusalem and
some land in the northern West Bank
adjacent to Israel.
Since Olmert and Defense
Minister Ehud Barak recently approved more
construction in both Efrat and Ariel, two
settlements relatively far from the
1949 armistice lines, it is
reasonable to assume that Olmert
wants to include these settlements in the
territory annexed to Israel as well.
Olmert's proposal states that once a
border is agreed upon, Israel would be able to
build freely in the settlement blocs
to be annexed.
The settlements outside the new
border would be evacuated in two stages. First,
after the agreement in principle is
signed, the cabinet would
initiate legislation to compensate
settlers who voluntarily relocate within Israel or
to settlement blocs slated to be
annexed. Over the past few
months, Olmert has approved construction
of thousands of housing units in these settlement
blocs, mostly around
Jerusalem, and some are
intended for the voluntary evacuees.
In the second stage, once the
Palestinians complete a
series of internal reforms and are capable of
carrying out the entire agreement, Israel
would remove any settlers
remaining east of the new
border.
Olmert will to try to sell the
deal to the Israeli public based on a staged
program of implementation. The present
negotiations, which started with
the Annapolis Summit in
November 2007, are intended to reach a
"shelf agreement" that would lay the foundations
of a Palestinian state. However,
implementation of the shelf
agreement would be postponed until the
Palestinian Authority is capable of carrying out
its part of the deal.
Olmert's proposal for a land
swap introduces a new stage in the
arrangement: Israel would immediately receive the
settlement blocs, but the land to
be transferred to the
Palestinians and the free passage between
Gaza and the West Bank would only be delivered
after the PA retakes control of
the Gaza Strip. In this way,
Olmert could tell the Israeli public
that Israel is receiving 7 percent of the West
Bank and an agreed-upon border,
while the Israeli concessions
will be postponed until Hamas rule in
Gaza has ended.
Abbas, for his part, could
tell his people that he has succeeded in obtaining
98 percent of the West Bank from
Israel, along with a promise
to remove all settlers over the
border.
The Palestinians' proposal had
talked about a much smaller land swap, of about 2
percent of the West Bank.
Compared to previous
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the Olmert
proposal falls between the one then prime
minister Barak presented to
Yasser Arafat at Camp David in
July 2000 and the one he offered at Taba in
January 2001. The Palestinian proposal is
similar to the ones offered
during the Arafat years, which
would have allowed Israel to annex only a few
settlements, along with their access roads
- a proposal nicknamed
"balloons and strings." All
these Palestinian proposals ruled out allowing
Israel to retain the settlement blocs.
Since then, however, the separation fence
has been built in the West Bank, and a new
physical reality has been created
in the areas where the fence
has been completed.
Israel also presented the
Palestinians with a detailed
model of new security arrangements under the
proposed agreement. The security proposal was
drawn up by a team headed by
Maj. Gen. Ido Nehoshtan, now
commander of the Israel Air Force,
but previously head of the army's Plans and Policy
Directorate. The proposal has also
been passed on to the
Americans, in an effort to obtain their
support for Israel's position during the
negotiations.
The security proposal
includes a demand that the Palestinian state be
demilitarized and without an army. The
Palestinians, in contrast, are
demanding that their security
forces be capable of defending
against "outside threats," an Israeli official
said.
On the refugee issue, Olmert's
proposal rejects a Palestinian "right of return"
and states that the refugees may only
return to the Palestinian
state, other than exceptional
cases in which refugees would be allowed into
Israel for family reunification.
Nevertheless, the proposal
includes a detailed and complex formula
for solving the refugee problem.
Olmert has agreed with Abbas
that the negotiations over
Jerusalem will be postponed. In doing so, he gave
in to the Shas Party's threats that it
would leave the coalition if
Jerusalem were put on the
negotiating table.
Olmert views reaching an
agreement with the Palestinians as extremely
important. Such an agreement would entrench
the two-state solution in the
international community's
consciousness, along with a detailed
framework for achieving this solution. In Olmert's
opinion, this is the only way
Israel can rebuff challenges
to its legitimacy and avoid calls for a
"one-state solution." Such an agreement would show
that Israel is not interested
in controlling the
territories, or the Palestinians, over the long
run, but only until conditions arise that
enable the establishment of a
Palestinian state. This
position has received strong support from the
present U.S. administration.
Next week, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice will visit the
region to continue her efforts to advance the
negotiations. However, Olmert opposes her
proposal to publish a joint
U.S.-Palestinian-Israeli
announcement detailing progress in the
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