Israel Willing to Compromise
The Jerusalem Post reports:
The teams of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met in Jerusalem Tuesday, ahead of a private meeting between the two leaders.
Israel Radio reported that during the extended meeting the Israelis gave their Palestinian counterparts general offers on core issues. An unnamed official was quoted as saying that the points on which the sides reach some degree of accord would then be taken up for detailed negotiations in higher levels…
Among the proposals made by the Israeli team is an offer to share control of the Temple Mount between the three major religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity) and to cede control of the Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem to the PA. The policing of major West Bank towns Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus would also be given to the Palestinians.
An unconfirmed Al Jazeera report said that the Israeli proposal made no mention of the Palestinian “right of return,” but that it called to create a demilitarized Palestinian state along the borderlines of June 4th 1967.
Not bad for the Palestinians one would think, but sadly Hamas disagrees:
Fathi Hamad, a Hamas senior in Gaza, said only moments after Abbas and Olmert began their meeting in Olmert’s official residence in Rehavia that Abbas was “behaving as if he is working for Olmert, and by this, bringing his own end nearer.”
Although the issue is far from resolved (personally I wonder whether it will ever be resolved) it seems to me that this should be generally seen as a step in the right direction. The difficult, though, is that whenever Israel has given in to Palestinian demands, Palestinian extremists have interpreted it as a sign of weakness and have used their (new) lands to attack Israel from. I am an Israel supporter, but also someone who believes that if the issue is ever going to be resolved, it will take a two-state solution. Israel will have to give in, and will have to give up some lands it conquered if it wants peace, but it seems to me that land for peace is not such a bad deal. The question is: how likely is it that giving up lands will result in peace?
The Palestinians have to change their propaganda. As long as the PA keeps feeding its people hatred and anti-semitism, the peace process will go nowhere. This should be part of the deal as well: there are websites like Palestinian Media Watch out there who can inform us about what PA TV broadcasts. More often than not, its programs are filled with hatred towards Israel and even all Jews.
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5 Responses to “Israel Willing to Compromise”
What good does it do to meet with Abbas when he is not supported by the majority of the Palestinians? It’s all just smoke and mirrors…
Its a start, but even if both sides come to an agreement with some teeth, they also need to be willng to endure the inevitable attempts by extremists to trash it all with a few strategically placed suicide bombers. If they aren’t willing to continue with the program after Hamas or whoever starts killing in reflex to the approach of peace its just going to be another stillborn proposal.
Olmert is a disaster for Israel, what more can be said. Giving up parts of your homeland to your sworn enemies bent on anihilating you makes Olmert mentally disturbed.
Michael – You and I are never going to agree on the Israeli-Palestinian issue but I’ll keep trying to convince you that this is NOT a one sided problem – it’s pretty close to 50-50. First, the agreement on letting the Palestinians police Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah is only a small portion of the Area A they had under Oslo and Wye River. In other words – big deal.
The Temple Mount agreement basically ratifies the arrangement aleady in existence with Muslim Waqf. The arab sections of East Jerusalem are under the defacto control of arabs already – the municipality of Jerusalem provides few, if any, services.
East Jerusalem will be a difficult problem to solve with 250,000 jews living in East Jersualem and environs( Gilo, Pisgat Ze’ev, Ramot Allon etc). This is over and above what to do with Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel.
As I’ve told you many times the plan of the settlers and many of the Kadima and most of the Likud politicians is to dismember the West Bank into Palestinian reservations. This peace discussion between Olmert and Abbas will only lead to another interim agreement which provides Israel time to solidify it’s hold on key areas of the West Bank. If you see these discussions leading to Israel giving up the Jordan Valley then a true peace is in the air. Without the Jordan Valley there is no 2 state solution.
One word of caution. As despicable as Palestinian hatred for Israel is, it is no worse than what one can hear literally in every West Bank Synagogue every Sabbath and at many of the synogogues in Israel proper. You can hear the same talk in coffee shops and restaurants in Israel. This is NOT an indictment against all Israeli Jews any more than all Palestinians.
In short – Talking helps but there is a LONG way to go and Abbas does not have much time. If he can’t produce something significantly better than this, he will be replaced by Hamas. If Israel wants to get serious about peace the single most important thing they can do is freeze the settlements and make it stick. That would give the Palestinians the time and hope needed to tackle the really tricky issues. However, every day they look and see new building going on everywhere on the West Bank. How do they gauge Israel’s intentions – their words or their actions?
I tend to agree that this is not the beginning of an era of peace and brotherhood. It will take a very, very long time before that will be possible, IMO.
There are just too many issues that can’t be resolve in present circumstances.
Still, I see this as a very important step. Israel showed itself to be capable of talking about deal making, instead of just issuing ultimatums. Appearances matter!
Even if nothing comes of it anytime soon, as long as talks go on, there is hope. Hope can be a great driving force.;