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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (photo: Flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff September 16, 2007 |
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tried to downplay on Sunday media reports that he had reached an "agreement of principles" with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of the November peace conference in Washington.
He did not dispute the accuracy of a Hebrew draft document published in the Palestinian press by the Maan news agency, and refused to discuss the substance of the document, which indicates a wholesale collapse of longstanding Israeli diplomatic red lines on a variety of fundamental issues.
The draft declaration calls for a full handover of Arab East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, evidently including much or all of the Old City, watering down of Israeli opposition to the return of Palestinian refugees, and 100% retreat to the equivalent of the pre-1967 borders, compensating for retention of three settlement blocs by ceding sovereign Israeli territority to create a land-bridge between Gaza and the West Bank that would cut Israel in half and allow unfettered transit of Palestinian terrorists and weapons.
Analysts have warned that it represents a dramatic retreat from long-held Israeli positions fraught with security and diplomatic danger.
Olmert admitted that he and Abbas are negotiating a document to be at the forefront of a proposed US-sponsored conference scheduled for November in Washington. "We are discussing a joint declaration that we hope will be the centerpiece of the international peace conference in Washington in November," he told ministers of his Kadima party.
Indeed, Israel Insider and other media have termed the draft document a "declaration of principles," the same term used for the document negotiated secretly in Oslo and signed on September 13, 1993 on the White House lawn. The prior Declaration of Principles provided the declaratory cornerstone that was then followed up inevitably by binding formal agreements. The current draft Declaration seems even more actionable, containing explicit calls for "immediate" implementation of steps that "must" be performed by Israel, including land handovers and dismantlement of communities in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank.")
Olmert tried to deflect criticism about the substance of the document, and the fact that the negotiations on fundamental issues were being conducted without consultation from virtually any other ministers, by trying to make a distinction between an "agreement" and a "declaration."
"I read media reports suggesting that we have reached an agreement of principles and that we only need to polish it. When we reach a declaration I will inform the government as I do not plan to keep it secret. There is a difference between an agreement of principles and a declaration," he said.
At one point, Olmert asked rhetorically: "The question is: what will be the content of the joint declaration? Since its establishment this government has been jumping at every opportunity in order to bring about a peace process. Before the elections we stated that were heading for a political initiative, and what we are doing today does not contradict what we said before the elections," Olmert added.
On the contrary, Olmert had before the elections emphasized his intention to make unilateral actions since the perception was that the Palestinians were too divided and proven to be incapable of ratifying any agreement, let alone implementing one.
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