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| By Israel Insider staff November 12, 2007 |
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| Erekat and Rice: Saying goodbye to Annapolis? Olmert says that non-recognition of Israel as a Jewish state will preclude Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state (Flash90) |
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Top PA negotiator Saeb Erekat rejected out of hand Israel's demand that the Palestinians acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state. "There is no country in the world where religious and national identities are intertwined," Erekat told Radio Palestine.
Erekat also said that when agreements are signed the Palestinians would demand that Israel make a written commitment to release all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
In response to Erekat's comment, a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office said PM Ehud Olmert insists that the Palestinians recognize Israel's Jewish identity as a condition for Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.
That would seem to put the entire conference in Annapolis, intended to announce Israel's agreement to recognize a Palestinian State, in considerable doubt. The
The official also said that Israel would not commit to releasing Palestinian prisoners outside the framework of doing so as a goodwill gesture towards the Palestinians. Today Olmert agreed to release an additional 400 security prisoners, out of a total of more than 12,000 held in Israel. None reportedly has "blood on his hands" -- that is, has not killed or seriously wounded an Israeli.
Olmert told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the Annapolis peace conference would not last for more than a single day. He said Israel would continue to negotiate with Abbas even if terrorists continue rocketing southern Israel from Gaza, committee member MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said.
In response to the prime minister's announcement, opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu said that the government was "giving everything" and in exchange was "getting terrorists." After meeting with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, he added: "The Olmert government is repeating the mistakes made by the Barak government at Camp David. Then, they gave everything but all they got in return were terrorists and suicide bombers. Now, the government of Olmert, Barak and Livni is behaving in the same way."
"This is not a path to peace, it is a path to terror," Netanyahu said.
Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman also said that the idea of releasing prisoners is "totally unacceptable." In an interview on Army Radio, he noted: "Every prisoner release since Oslo, from 1993 until today, failed completely. It did not serve its purpose, neither before Oslo nor after Oslo."
A Palestinian survey conducted by the Al-Quds Information Center showed that 62 percent of Palestinians believe the Annapolis parley will fail, while 35.3% think it will succeed. The survey also showed that 47% believe the failure of the conference will not have any repercussions while 28% said it will lead to a third intifada.
Also according to the poll, 52.9% believe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be solved if Jerusalem becomes a Muslim city while 26% believe east Jerusalem should be the capital of Palestine and west Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
Ten percent said they thought the city should be the joint capital of both nations and 7.4% said the capital should be under international control. |
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