OLMERT'S MISGUIDED OPTIMISM

Olmert’s Misguided Optimism by Eric Trager (Contentions)

Credit Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with one thing: he’s probably the only world leader more publicly optimistic about Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects than George W. Bush. Yesterday, Olmert announced that Israel would begin negotiating final borders with the Palestinians, the ongoing crisis in Gaza notwithstanding. “On this issue there is a set of previous understandings and international backing,” Olmert said, raising expectations in the Israeli press for an “easy” solution.

Of course, Olmert is delusional—Israeli-Palestinian consensus on border issues is light years away. Just ask the Arabic press, which completely ignored Olmert’s negotiations announcement. Instead, the Palestine News Agency, al-Jazeera, and al-Quds placed Israel’s decision to construct new housing units in East Jerusalem among its top headlines, while al-Hayat al-Jadida bemoaned “the Judaization of Jerusalem.” Meanwhile, al-Ayyam’s coverage of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s visit to Washington emphasized his call for an end to Israeli settlement activity—an appropriate focus, given Fayyad’s newly avowed pessimismtowards the peace process.

The source of this widening gap between Israeli and Palestinian leaders’ outlooks appears to be Olmert’s fixation on Bush’s April 2004 letter to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, which Olmert cited in his call for border negotiations. In this letter, Bush acknowledged that, “it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.” At the time, Israelis interpreted this as recognizing settlement blocs along the Green Line as a diplomatic reward for the forthcoming Gaza disengagement, thus removing the mutual exclusivity of land-for-peace with settlement expansion.

In fact, the letter recognized no such thing. Rather, it simply allowed for the possibility that future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations would opt for “mutually agreed changes” to the Green Line in establishing final borders, and promised to endorse these changes if they were formulated by the two sides. Moreover, the letter made repeated reference to the Road Map, the first phase of which explicitly calls on Israel to freeze settlement activity.

Of course, settlement activity is not the primary reason for the absence of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Indeed, considering the full-scale guerilla war that will likely hit Gaza in the near future, the settlements are small beans. Still, the Prime Minister’s inability to recognize the distance that exists between him and his Palestinian counterparts on borders—which is roughly the distance between the Green Line and the eastern edge of Har Homa—is confounding. If Olmert hopes to bridge that distance, he would be well advised to match his stated goals with policy, finally acknowledging the extent to which continued settlement building is inconsistent with peace efforts.

WINOGRAD REPORT: ISRAEL FAILED IN WAR BUT OLMERT ACTED IN GOOD FAITH

Winograd: Israel failed in war, but Olmert acted in good faith (JTA)
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- In the year and a half since Israel’s failures in the Second Lebanon War, Ehud Olmert has weathered incessant criticism that unlike many Israeli leaders, he's no ex-general.

But this very lack of military experience paradoxically may have spared the prime minister the full brunt of a commission of inquiry's censure and saved his political career.

The long-awaited final report by the Winograd Commission published Wednesday painted a dismal picture of Israel’s 34-day offensive waged against Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia in the summer of 2006. It said the war was desperately lacking in strategies, relevant tactics and even proper communication between the army’s top brass and Olmert's government.

"Overall, we regard the Second Lebanon war as a serious missed opportunity," the panel's chairman, retired judge Eliahu Winograd, said at a news conference carried live on Israeli TV and radio. "Israel initiated a long war, which ended without its clear military victory.

"A semi-military organization of a few thousand men resisted, for a few weeks, the strongest army in the Middle East, which enjoyed full air superiority and size and technology advantages."

But while the five-member panel said Israel went to war without sufficient deliberation after Hezbollah abducted two of its soldiers on July 12, 2006 in a cross-border raid, it presented a kinder view of the Olmert government's biggest and most controversial gamble: an 11th-hour ground offensive in southern Lebanon waged even as a cease-fire was being hammered out at the U.N. Security Council.

The report said that move, which cost the lives of 33 soldiers, did not significantly repel Hezbollah or improve truce terms. But it presented this primarily as a function of the poor fighting capability of the armed forces, voicing confidence that Olmert and his then-defense minister, Amir Peretz, approved the offensive in good faith.

"We believe that they both acted out of a strong and sincere perception of what they thought at the time was Israel's interest," Winograd said.

That perhaps more than any other statement in the 500-page report was the reprieve needed by Olmert, who brushed off calls to resign even after Peretz and his wartime military chief, Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, stepped down in disgrace.

The report’s conclusion that Olmert acted out of his perception of Israel’s best interests and that the Israel Defense Forces and various levels of government share responsibility for the war’s failures bolstered Olmert’s position.

His coalition partners gave no indication, at least initially, that the report’s conclusions were sufficiently harsh to prompt them to quit the government and thereby hasten new elections.

Israeli War Report Backs Olmert
JERUSALEM (AP) - The final report into Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon concluded that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not fail in his handling of a key battle and that his decisions were reasonable, defense officials said Wednesday.

More than 30 Israeli soldiers were killed in a last-minute offensive launched shortly before a U.N.-brokered truce went into effect. Olmert has come under severe criticism for ordering the battle, despite his contention that it improved Israel's position before the cease-fire.

The officials, who reviewed the report, spoke on condition of anonymity pending its formal release later Wednesday.

Lebanon war a 'serious' failure for Israel (AFP)
Israel's 2006 war against Lebanon's Hezbollah militia was a "large and serious" failure, according to key report on the conflict issued on Wednesday by government-appointed commission.

"This war was a big and serious failure," retired judge Eliyahu Winograd said as he read out his government-appointed commission's final findings, adding that there was a "great deal of failure at senior political and military levels."

"Entering into the war without an exit strategy was a grave failure," he said.

"The ground operation did not achieve its objectives," he said, referring to the operation in the last few days of the war.

ISRAEL'S LEBANON DISASTER

Israel's Lebanon Disaster by MICHAEL OREN (WSJ)
I had fought in war before but had never seen such intensive fire -- tracer bullets, rockets, artillery shells -- nor been assigned a more horrific detail. My unit was escorting the bodies of Israeli soldiers killed on the last night of the Second Lebanon War, a few hours before the U.N. cease-fire agreement took effect. None of us understood the purpose of this last-minute offensive or, indeed, many of the government's disastrous decisions during the war. We agreed that the burden of these failures would be borne by our leaders, military and civilians alike.

Now, a year and a half later, veterans of the war are demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accept responsibility for its conduct -- or risk unraveling the consensus on which Israel's survival depends.

OLMERT TO ALLOW 50,000 PALIS TO "RETURN"?

Report: Olmert Agrees to Allow in 50,000 Arab 'Refugees' by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) The issue of "Arab refugees" has long been a matter of widespread consensus in Israel, with even left-wing parties declaring that allowing them into Israel would endanger its very existence as a Jewish state. Nevertheless, the subject does not appear to be going away. Reports are that Prime Minister Olmert has now agreed to allow 50,000 Arabs who left Israel in 1948 - or are descendants of those who did - to enter and live in Israel.

Channel Ten reported Thursday night that in a private meeting between Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen, the two agreed that in the final-status agreement, Israel would withdraw from 92% of Judea and Samaria, including all the non-Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem. It was also agreed that 50,000 "refugees from 1948" would enter and live in the State of Israel.

Olmert: Israel failed its settlement promise (MSNBC)
JERUSALEM - Israel has failed to uphold its promise to halt building in settlements, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an unprecedented acknowledgement Friday ahead of President Bush's visit to prod Israel and the Palestinians toward a final accord.

Any agreement is to be based on the internationally backed "road map" peace plan, which was revived ahead of the recent Mideast peace summit in Annapolis, Md., where Israel and the Palestinians officially relaunched talks after seven years of violence.

The road map foundered shortly after it was presented in 2003 because neither side met initial obligations: Israel did not halt West Bank settlement construction, and the Palestinians did not crack down on militants.

Israel has long maintained that it has the right to continue building in existing settlements to account for ill-defined "natural growth" of the existing settler population — something the "road map" explicitly bans. But in his interview with The Jerusalem Post, Olmert acknowledged that Israel was not honoring its commitments.

"There is a certain contradiction in this between what we're actually seeing and what we ourselves promised," Olmert said.

"Obligations are not only to be demanded of others, but they must also be honored by ourselves. So there is a certain problem here," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Olmert added, however, that Israel believes a Bush letter to the Israeli government in 2004 "renders flexible to a degree what is written in the road map."

In that letter, Bush wrote that "existing Israeli population centers" should be taken into consideration when the final borders of a Palestinian state are set down. Israel takes this to mean it will be able to retain major West Bank settlement blocs, where much of the controversial construction is going on.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat welcomed Olmert's remarks. When both sides admit they are not carrying out all their obligations, that "should be the way for both of us to carry out our obligations," Erekat said.

OLMERT GOV'T BANS JEWISH PRAYER FROM TEMPLE MOUNT

Olmert Gov't Bans Jewish Prayer From Temple Mount by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Public Security Minister Avi Dichter announced on Tuesday the government's official policy regarding Jewish prayer on the site of the Holy Temple: "Jews may pray on their holiest site - but only in their heart; no lip-moving allowed."

Dichter explained that government policy on the Mount is dictated by the wish to ensure that bloodshed not occur. He said that Jews moving their lips in prayer on the Mount, which the Moslems have sanctified as their own, can be seen as a Jewish provocation that could lead to bloodshed.

Knesset Members Aryeh Eldad and Uri Ariel - both of the National Union party and both residents of Kfar Adumim in the Jordan Valley - had submitted a request to pray on the holy site, and Dichter's response was the result.

Though the two had pledged not to perpetrate "group prayer" or "demonstrative prayer," both of which have been banned for Jews at the Temple Mount, Dichter said that the "outer trappings" of private prayer - namely, moving of lips - render even that forbidden. In his response to the MKs, Dichter noted that the only option for Jews who wish to pray on their most sacred site "is to exchange thoughts with his G-d in his heart."

The New Jewish Congress responded with barely-controlled fury, issuing this statement:

"Minister Dichter's comments demonstrate his, and this government's, total disconnect from the reality of the Temple Mount, from the Jewish people, and from the government's obligations towards both. This is yet another indication that the government of Ehud Olmert has ceased to be a Jewish government altogether, having not the slightest connection with the Jewish people."

Just two weeks ago, the government did nothing when Fatah allowed Hamas to broadcast its anti-Jewish incitement directly from the Temple Mount. The New Jewish Congress noted the irony of the juxtaposition of the loud and clear Hamas broadcasts and the banned silent Jewish prayer emanating from the same site - that of the Holy Temple.

"In reality," the statement continued, "the Jewish people enjoy freedom of religious expression, including prayer and Torah study, everywhere - except on the Temple Mount, their only holy site."

"Minister Dichter's comments convey hatred and discrimination towards the Jewish people," the New Jewish Congress stated. "In due time, this government will be held accountable for its actions and will stand trial in a Jewish court of justice that will be established by the Jewish people."

Say Nothing by David Hazony (Commentary)
How bizarre can Middle East politics get, you ask? In Israel—a democratic state which protects freedom of religious practice by law; a state which in principle is meant to express and protect the millennial longings of the Jews—a Jew who ascends the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, and utters the briefest of prayers, even under his breath, is subject to arrest and prosecution by Israeli police. Why? He is, allegedly, engaging in a provocative act which may lead to violence. That is, at least, the view of Israel’s public security minister Avi Dichter. Dichter recently wrote to two parliamentarians who, according to Haaretz, sought to pray in silence and without prayer shawls at the site. Such an act, Dichter wrote, is banned. It might “serve as a provocation” and result in “disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed.”

I do not think Dichter is wrong to suggest that Jews praying on the Temple Mount may upset Muslims, who also pray on the Temple Mount. Nor do I think that violence is an impossible outcome. The real question is: What happened to the individual’s rights in the face of the violent mob? Isn’t that what the police in a democracy are for—to deter precisely the kind of bloodshed that intimidates people into giving up cherished practices? And from the Jewish side—why go through the (quite considerable) trouble of having a Jewish state if a Jew cannot pray at his religion’s holiest site?

OLMERT: NO SETTLEMENTS WITHOUT MY APPROVAL

Olmert: No West Bank Construction Without My Prior Approval - Barak Ravid
Prime Minister Olmert sent an official letter on Sunday to government ministers with an order to refrain from authorizing any construction in the West Bank without his and Defense Minister Barak's prior approval. Olmert did not address construction in eastern Jerusalem in the letter. However, he said Sunday, "the sweeping order regarding all of Judea and Samaria [West Bank] won't touch upon Jerusalem, but even on Jerusalem, we must act wisely and cautiously." (Ha'aretz)

IS OLMERT CHANNELING CARTER, WALT AND MEARSHEIMER?

Olmert's Bizarre Reading List (Contentions)
Thanks to their highly controversial recent publications, former President Jimmy Carter and the academic tag-team of Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer have become persona non grata in much of the American Jewish community. Carter’s Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid argued that Israeli settlement in the West Bank—not terrorism, nor the ascendancy of Hamas—is the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Walt and Mearsheimer’s The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy argued that U.S. policy in the Middle East is primarily driven by “American Jews who make a significant effort in their daily lives to bend U.S. foreign policy so that it advances Israel’s interests.”

Yet while the American Jewish community was busy debating whether these authors were anti-Semitic, conspiratorial, or simply misguided, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was apparently leafing through the two bestselling tomes for sound-bite material. Consider Olmert’s bizarre press statements following last week’s Annapolis Conference, in which he framed his pursuit of negotiations with terms perfectly agreeable to Cater, Walt, and Mearsheimer.

First, Olmert conceded to Carter’s claim that Israel faces a choice between peace or apartheid, saying:

If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished.

Then, borrowing a page from the Walt-Mearsheimer playbook, Olmert argued that Israel must choose peace over apartheid to satisfy its supporters in the United States, who are essential to the Jewish state’s survival; as he told Haaretz:

The Jewish organizations, which were our power base in America, will be the first to come out against us because they will say they cannot support a state that does not support democracy and equal voting rights for all its residents.

Olmert should be taken to task for his carelessness. For starters, perhaps he needs to be reminded of his primary constituency. Olmert represents Israelis, and will need Israelis’ broad support to make the painful concessions that peace will require. It is truly hard to imagine Israelis being swayed by the prospective loss of American Jewish moral support for their government’s decisions, particularly when peace carries substantial risks for their personal security, first and foremost.

Furthermore, Olmert should be reminded of his secondary constituency: Palestinians, who will hardly be motivated to support peace with an Israeli prime minister who frames negotiations as a means of avoiding institutionalized racism. At least one Egyptian newspaper was aglow with headlines noting that the Israeli Prime Minister compared his state to apartheid South Africa. This is public diplomacy at its worst.

Olmert is going to have to learn to better represent Israelis and more effectively address Palestinians if forthcoming negotiations are to have any chance. On the other hand, in case negotiations fail, Olmert has done a good job of opening up a future position as a Middle East Fellow at the Carter Center.

CARTOON

OLMERT TO SUPPLY P.A. WITH ARMED VEHICLES

PM agrees to supply of 50 armored vehicles to PA security

Paves way for Russian shipment deal; IDF and Shin Bet oppose move out of concern vehicles might reach Hamas or other violent groups. (JPost)

OLMERT DIAGNOSED WITH PROSTATE CANCER

Olmert Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer - Ronny Sofer (Ynet News)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Monday that he is suffering from early-stage prostate cancer. He is expected to make a full recovery and said he would continue to run the state's affairs.

PALESTINIAN "SECURITY" FORCES PLOTTED TO KILL OLMERT

Palestinian 'Security' Forces Plotted to Kill Olmert (LGF)

In August, Ehud Olmert’s partners in peace plotted to murder him.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel would “not look the other way” on a plot by a terrorist cell from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction to attack his convoy earlier this year in the West Bank city of Jericho.

However, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad on Sunday said Olmert was never seriously threatened by an assassination plot by Palestinian militants and promised to do his best to rein in West Bank gunmen.

“There was nothing imminently dangerous,” Fayad said as he arrived for a meeting in Jerusalem with Israeli officials. “We are trying the very best we can to bring law and order to the cities, villages and areas that are under our control.”

Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told cabinet members Sunday that the Fatah cell had planned to carry out the attack as the convoy entered the West Bank city on August 6, en route to the prime minister’s meeting with Abbas.

Israeli security sources said the cell planned to fire on the convoy, and had made preliminary preparations for the attack, which primarily included intelligence gathering.

According to the sources, the terrorists were members of the PA security forces, and therefore knew the convoy’s route as well as security arrangements.

I’m sure all these high-spirited hijinx will stop as soon as they have their own well-deserved state!

Assassination plots make Olmert a bit uncomfortable, but apparently not so uncomfortable that he doesn’t want to give the Palestinians a state, Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount.

The Palestinian Authority’s conduct towards the suspects in the plot to assassinate him is “a source of discomfort,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday before he left Israel for France.

ABBAS: OLSO OFFER NO GOOD, WANTS ALL PRE-'67 LAND

Rice says talks 'gaining momentum' (JPost)
The dialogue between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has gained momentum, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview to CBS. Rice said that during the last round of trilateral talks, in February, Olmert and Abbas had "barely [agreed] to speak to each other, let alone speak about anything of importance."

The secretary of state also said that support in the Arab world for Abbas was critical and pointed out that Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair's mission had also "helped people focus on the institutions of statehood, the building of capacity to govern."

Turning to the situation in the Gaza Strip, Rice said that Gaza was not separate from the Palestinian Authority. There aren't two Palestinian [Authorities], Rice said. Rather, she asserted, there was the West Bank and Gaza, and there was going to be a Palestinian state under the leadership of Abbas and PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.

At some point, Rice said, Hamas will have to make a choice: "is it prepared to be outside that consensus or not; is it prepared to be outside the Arab consensus or not?"

Meanwhile, Abbas told the Washington Post, in an interview published Sunday, that an offer similar to the 92 percent of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a Palestinian state extended at Camp David in 2000 would not be enough.

He insisted on the pre-1967 borders, speaking ahead of Tuesday's scheduled meeting with Olmert in his Jerusalem succa to discuss a memorandum of understanding on principles for a peace deal.

We will be flexible," said Abbas. "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]." [ED. THERE ARE SO MANY LIES AND MISREPRESENTATIONS IN THESE STATEMENTS THAT I WOULD GET CARPEL TUNNEL SETTING THEM ALL OUT].

He added that like Arafat, he too would have rejected the offer Bill Clinton made at Camp David in 2000. "Ninety-two [percent] is unacceptable to us," Abbas said. ....

Abbas reiterated his government's position that the key to solving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was directly addressing the "final status" issues, including Palestinian statehood, the status of Jerusalem and the right of return for refugees.

Also Friday, Abbas told AFP he thought a final agreement could be hammered out within six months of the November talks.

In his Washington Post interview, Abbas gave a nod in the direction of Vice Premier Haim Ramon's idea of giving the Palestinians parts of east Jerusalem.

"In principle, this is the right direction. The Palestinians should have their own part and the Israelis should have their own part... I say and have always said that east Jerusalem is an occupied territory. We have to restore it."

Asked if he would demand to return to his birthplace, Safed, Abbas said: "This is my right, but how I will use this right is up to me and to the refugees and to the agreement which will take place between us."

"We want to find a permanent solution," added Abbas. "The Israelis want security, and we are in need of independence. We want to bridge the gap during the negotiations."

"We should have a safe passage between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank because Gaza is a part of Palestine... all the Arabs support this vision," he continued.

Abbas said he was not interested in returning to a national unity government with Hamas.

Abbas said Olmert was a sincere and serious leader who wanted to make peace. "I know his internal problems. But he is determined to do something," he added.

In his talks with Olmert, Abbas said, "We tackled all the sensitive issues like borders, refugees, settlements, Jerusalem and security... We have already established the teams that are drafting an agreement about these sensitive issues.

"After the conference, we will start negotiating the details of these issues in order to have a peace treaty," said Abbas.

ABBAS: OLMERT PROMISED JERUSALEM AS PALI CAPITAL

Abu Mazen: Olmert Agreed to Make Jerusalem Arab Capital (INN)
Palestinian Authority head tells Sec'y Rice that Olmert has agreed to the long-standing Arab demand that eastern Jerusalem be capital of Palestine.

PM: Israel to make heavy concessions (JPost)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would be willing to withdraw from a vast amount of territory in the West Bank in return for genuine peace in a final-status agreement with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Olmert told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday.

Olmert conditioned the withdrawal on the Palestinians keeping all their commitments in the road map, which would be implemented without skipping its stages. The prime minister said this could take time, but his office vigorously denied an Israel Radio report that Olmert said it could take 20 to 30 years.

"I am not talking about withdrawing from all of the territories but rather from specific territories that will be under Palestinian control," Olmert told the committee. "The withdrawal will not take place in a way that will abandon Israeli security. I won't enter the argument of when it will take place but the road map will be part of any agreement."

OLMERT TO FREE 90 MORE FATAH TERRORISTS

...AS ISRAEL CONTINUES TO NEGOTIATE AGAINST ITSELF AND DELIVER UNRECIPROCATED CONCESSIONS...

Olmert Gov't to Free 90 More Terrorist Prisoners (INN)
The Olmert government voted this morning to release 90 PA prisoners, as a Ramadan gesture to PA/Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas.

SEE ALSO: Fatah Terrorists Arrested in Shechem Released on Gov't Orders (INN)
Two senior Fatah terrorists were released early Friday morning, hours after being apprehended during IDF counter-terror operations Thursday.

OLMERT: TIME FOR CONCESSIONS ON JERUSALEM, WEST BANK

SO AFTER ISRAEL GIVES UP PART OF JERUSALEM AND THE WEST BANK IN EXCHANGE FOR NOTHING (CERTAINLY NOT PEACE), WHAT DOES ISRAEL HAVE LEFT TO OFFER FOR THE PEACE THE PALESTINIANS DON'T INTEND TO EVER OFFER? RETURN OF REFUGEES? SUICIDE?

ALSO, AFTER ISRAEL GIVES UP CONTROL TO FATAH, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN FATAH EITHER STARTS WORKING WITH HAMAS AGAIN OR FALLS TO A HAMAS TAKE OVER? HAMAS WILL BE IN JERUSALEM AND ON LAND SITUATED LIKE A DAGGER INTO THE HEART OF ISRAEL (NOT TO MENTION ON MOUNTAINS OVERLOOKING ISRAEL). AS IN GAZA, HAMAS WON'T HONOR ANY AGREEMENTS REACHED BY FATAH WITH ISRAEL.

I THINK OLMERT SHOULD RE-READ THE STORY OF THE TROJAN HORSE.

Olmert, Ramon prep Israelis for concessions (JTA)
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his deputy, Haim Ramon, said concessions in Jerusalem and the West Bank were key to achieving a peace agreement.

In a Yom Kippur eve interview on Friday, Ramon told Israel Radio in his bluntest terms to date that Israel must hand over Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem over to Palestinian sovereignty, going so far as to blast Israel's a1968 annexation of the eastern part of the city. "This annexation threatens Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish people," Ramon said. "It will bring about its transformation into a Palestinian capital with a Palestinian majority."

Addressing a Kadima Party conference Thursday night after wrapping up meetings with Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. secretary of state, Olmert slammed Israelis who oppose concessions, saying they are seeking excuses "to avoid seizing opportunities and not look for real chances to break the ice between us and the Palestinians. I do not share this view." Olmert called Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president a partner for peace.

Rice's visit to the region comes ahead of a November peace conference to be convened by the United States.

Abbas, who will meet Monday in New York with President Bush during the launch of this year's U.N. General Assembly, made it clear in his remarks with Rice that the conference would address final status issues. "We assured Dr. Rice of our genuine endeavor to reach a final status framework agreement in order to implement the final status issues including borders, Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, water and security," Abbas said. "We believe that the time is ripe for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and for living side by side in security and tranquillity with the State of Israel."

SEE ALSO: Dividing Jerusalem
No one in Ehud Olmert’s Kadima Party is asking if Jerusalem will be divided. The only question is how it will be divided. (Ha'aretz)

OLMERT FLOATS IDEA OF DIVIDING JERUSALEM

Chief Negotiator Favors Division of Jerusalem, Incl. Old City (INN)
The lead negotiator on behalf of the government in talks with the PA confirmed his plan to relinquish much of Jerusalem, including in the Old City.

Ministers speak out against Ramon plan (YNet)
Several ministers express outrage at vice premier's letter proposing ceding parts of Jerusalem to Palestinian Authority. Kadima MK warns party could turn into Meretz; Olmert's office says plan does not obligate prime minister

"The government does not have a majority (to support) Haim Ramon's opinions on anything to do with Jerusalem," Pensioners Party Chairman Rafi Eitan said Tuesday following the exposure of the vice premier's letter calling for the division of Jerusalem and the establishment of joint sovereignty over the city's holy sites.

"He does not have a majority in Kadima, not in Labor, not in Shas, and not in Yisrael Beitenu, and certainly not with Rafi Eitan," the minister of pensioner affairs added.

Deputy Prime Minister and Shas Chairman Eli Yishai responded to Ramon's plan saying, "I strongly oppose Minister Ramon's initiative. Jerusalem is the city that has been bringing together the Jewish people for thousands of years, and is not a bargaining chip or piece of real estate. Jerusalem is the Jewish people's right of existence and there is no one who is able to give up that right."

Shas sources added following the Ynet report that "anyone willing to give up Jerusalem in order to preserve the government will end up discovering that Jerusalem is stronger than any government".

Two ministers speaking under condition of anonymity said there was no way that Ramon's initiative would be approved by the government or Knesset in the present situation with the Palestinians. Other ministers reported great unrest among Kadima members following Ramon's report.

"It seems to be another experimental balloon the prime minister is flying using Ramon. This will not pass quietly in the Kadima council's political meeting with Olmert on Thursday. He does not have the status to change Kadima's official platform," one source said.

OLMERT "RESPECTS" ASSAD, SYRIAN POLICY; WILLING TO GIVE UP GOLAN

Olmert is prepared to enter unconditional talks with Syria (JPost)
arly two weeks after reports surrounding an alleged IAF incursion into Syrian skies began circulating, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Monday that Israel was prepared to hold negotiations with the Damascus. The prime minister also addressed the Iranian threat, asserting that Israel "is not afraid."

"We want to make peace with everyone. If the conditions allow for it, we are ready to make peace with Syria without preconditions and without ultimatums. I have a lot of respect for the Syrian leader and for Syrian policy" said Olmert.

OLMERT OFFERS PALIS THE STORE

ISRAEL CONTINUES TO NEGOTIATE AGAINST ITSELF IN EXCHANGE FOR NOTHING... NOT EVEN EMPTY PROMISES. SHAMEFUL.

Ramon, Fayyad outline peace terms (JTA)
Haim Ramon reportedly offered the Palestinians most of the West Bank, parts of eastern Jerusalem, and land swaps from Israel.

Ramon, the deputy Israeli prime minister who is close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, met recently with Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, Israel's daily Yediot Acharonot reported Friday.

The two discussed the outlines of a declaration of principles ahead of a November peace summit to be convened by the Bush administration.

Israel would retain the portions of the West Bank west of the security barrier that runs through the West Bank, according to the report, and the Palestinians would get Israeli land as compensation – likely in the form of a land corridor between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians would get Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods, and the sensitive Old City areas would be under religious authority with no national flags visible. Palestinian refugees would not be allowed to return to Israel.

The Associated Press reported that neither side had comment on the reported plan.

IS OLMERT PREPARING TO GIVE AWAY THE STORE?

Olmert Offers Judea, Samaria, Divides J'lem in Draft Accord
(IsraelNN.com) Israel's government has agreed, in writing, to hand over 6,250 square kilometers of land – the equivalent of its entire biblical and strategic heartland - to an Arab terror state. So reports Dr. Guy Bechor, a leading expert on Arab affairs, who also supplies some of the details of the negotiations.

Bechor reports, based on "leaks from the Palestinian side," that Israel has, in the past few days, presented Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas at least one draft of an "agreement of principles."

• The agreement calls for a state named Palestine to be established alongside Israel, and have a territory of 6,250 square kilometers: the equivalent of all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
• "Palestine" will be demilitarized.
• Most of the Jewish communities built in Judea and Samaria over the past 40 years are to demolished and their inhabitants expelled, according to the plan. The remaining communities are to be concentrated in small salients for which the Arab state will be compensated with additional territory elsewhere in present-day Israel.
• A passage of some sort will connect Gaza and Judea and Samaria. It will be under Jewish sovereignty and Palestinian administration.
• Israel agrees to redivide Jerusalem. Arab neighborhoods will be under Arab sovereignty and Jewish ones under Jewish sovereignty. Mention is made of "religious areas," but further details are not known as of yet. Each side will recognize the other's spiritual needs.
• The "refugee" question is not mentioned at all, and Bechor reports that this is the main sticking point. Abbas is insisting that Arabs descended from those who fled Israel in 1948 be allowed to return to Israel, at least in principle.

Bechor says that Abbas and his men have gone over the draft and are not pleased; they know how to negotiate, he notes. In a recent interview with PA TV, Abbas said that "declarations of principles are a waste of time" and "useless." What the PA wants, he said, is a clear timetable for establishing Palestine, as well as an Israeli pullback, demolition of Jewish communities and "return of refugees" (i.e., the flooding of Israel with Arab citizens).

The Arabs are hoping Israel will become more pliable in November, when an international diplomatic conference, sponsored by the US, is to be held in an attempt to hammer out an accord.

An official close to Mahmoud Abbas, Mustafa Bargouti, said that the idea of a conference is "an Israeli trap" and that nothing will come of it.