Ben White; 14/8/08
On Tuesday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published what seemed like a significant development in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, reporting that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had presented Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president “with a detailed proposal for an agreement in principle on borders, refugees and security arrangements between Israel and a future Palestinian state.” The “offer” is nothing too different to what we’ve seen before: Israel keeps the main settlement blocs, including around Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, Maaleh Adumim, and, the Haaretz article suggests, Efrat and Ariel too. There is no mention of arrangements for the Jordan Valley, crucial territory that Olmert has previously declared his intention to annex. While Israel apparently keeps seven percent of the West Bank, the Palestinians are “compensated” with land from the Negev Desert and a road connecting the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In fact, the overall borders are by and large determined by the separation wall, which the report rightly notes has created a “new physical reality”.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=112813&d=14&m=8&y=2008
