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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
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| By Israel Insider staff September 30, 2007 |
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Israeli officials are reportedly concerned that the Palestinians will up their demands ahead of the November peace summit.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told the Washington Post that his government would not settle for just 92 percent of the West Bank and Gaza, as Bill Clinton proposed in the Camp David Accords.
Abbas is demanding that Israel withdraw to the pre-1967 borders, which both Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni oppose.
But he voiced support for Vice Premier Haim Ramon's plan to cede roughly 97 percent of the West Bank to the PA and Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, along with additional territory from sovereign Israel. The plan is fiercely opposed by key players in Olmert's coalition and will unlikely pass in the Knesset.
"We will be flexible," Abbas told The Washington Post. "But before 1947, we had 95% of Palestine. In 1937, the partition plan gave the Israelis only part of Palestine. And they were very happy at that time. [David] Ben-Gurion was very happy with it. It didn't work. After that [came] the 1947 partition plan - we rejected this, so we lost... Now, we accept [the pre-'67 borders]."
The PA is demanding concrete terms for the upcoming summit, which it says is required for Saudi Arabia's attendance, a key player in the success of the conference.
Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa urged Israel to stop building up the settlements.
"It is inconceivable for us to sit and talk about the new state of Palestine... while the map that would be before us, at that moment, would change if we meet in the afternoon because of building settlements," he said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. "This has to stop."
Livni said that instead of waiting for the end of the process, "for every positive step of Israel toward the Palestinians, the Arab countries should respond with a positive step toward Israel," Haaretz reported.
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