Van Palestijnse zijde wordt beweerd dat Abbas wel bereid was over het plan te praten, en dat Olmert bovendien politiek nogal zwak stond en het plan het daarom waarschijnlijk toch niet gehaald zou hebben in Israel. Dat wordt overigens ook over Baraks vergaande vredesvoorstellen gezegd. Het is een makkelijk argument, want wanneer Barak of Olmert Palestijnse steun voor hun plannen hadden gekregen had dit hun populariteit ook verhoogd. Beiden waren gekozen omdat zij vrede wilde sluiten met de Palestijnen en werde mede afgerekend op het falen wat dat betreft. Olmert zelf zegt over de Palestijnse tegenwerpingen:
“I know all of their arguments,” said Olmert. “They say that Abu Mazen agreed with [George W.] Bush that [chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb] Erakat would meet with [Olmert's diplomatic adviser Shalom] Turjeman in early January in Washington, but that was a few days before Bush left the White House and we received no such invitation. They claim that it was because I was finished politically, so [Abbas] hesitated. But that is an excuse after the fact. They [the Palestinians] were very worried. Abu Mazen (Abbas) is not a big hero. They were afraid. Erakat was worried. In the end they thought that maybe after the American elections they would get more from President Obama.”
Wat ik in het vorige bericht hierover vergat op te merken, is dat het voorstel ook een deling van Jeruzalem inhield en gemeenschappelijke controle over de Tempelberg.
In the interview, Olmert reconfirms that he was ready to relinquish sovereignty in the Old City, divide Jerusalem, and give the Palestinians the entire West Bank with one-for-one land swaps to retain major settlements. He also goes into new details about his proposal for resolving Palestinian refugee demands.
Ik verwacht niet dat het NOS journaal er vanavond mee opent, maar de wonderen zijn de wereld nog niet uit, dus ik laat me graag verrassen....
RP
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Abbas failed to accept my peace offer because he’s ‘no hero’
Ehud Olmert offers new details of his 2008 Palestinian statehood proposal, addresses refugee absorption within the Green Line
http://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-failed-to-accept-my-peace-offer-because-hes-no-hero/
May 24, 2013, 12:17 pm 2
More than four years after he offered the Palestinians a state with a sovereign share of Jerusalem and 100% of the West Bank, with some one-for-one land swaps, former prime minister Ehud Olmert accused PA President Mahmoud Abbas of lacking the guts to take the deal.
In an interview with The Tower website, Olmert said he was familiar with all “the arguments” that the Palestinians have put forward for failing to seize the best offer Israel has ever made for a permanent accord, but that the bottom line is that Abbas is no hero and that the Palestinians were afraid.
“I know all of their arguments,” said Olmert. “They say that Abu Mazen agreed with [George W.] Bush that [chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb] Erakat would meet with [Olmert's diplomatic adviser Shalom] Turjeman in early January in Washington, but that was a few days before Bush left the White House and we received no such invitation. They claim that it was because I was finished politically, so [Abbas] hesitated. But that is an excuse after the fact. They [the Palestinians] were very worried. Abu Mazen (Abbas) is not a big hero. They were afraid. Erakat was worried. In the end they thought that maybe after the American elections they would get more from President Obama.”
In the interview, Olmert reconfirms that he was ready to relinquish sovereignty in the Old City, divide Jerusalem, and give the Palestinians the entire West Bank with one-for-one land swaps to retain major settlements. He also goes into new details about his proposal for resolving Palestinian refugee demands.
Olmert told Abbas that he was willing to absorb 5,000 refugees over five years, inside the Green Line.
“Why 5,000? It may sound kind of strange, but during the talks between Rice and Abu Mazen he said that he needed the settlement of tens of thousands of refugees inside Israel, and that Ehud Barak had been ready to take in 100,000. She told him that he could get the same number of people as could fit inside the Muqata’a at any given moment. We estimated that number to be about 5,000. So that’s how I came up with the number.
“I’m telling you, if Abu Mazen had been ready to sign on an agreement that would require our absorbing 10,000-15,000 over five years, I would have agreed,” the former prime minister told The Tower.
Abbas’s hasty sketch of Olmert’s proposal, which includes no place names, indicates that Olmert was apparently willing to more or less return to the pre-1967 lines, while maintaining the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem, the settlement city of Ma’aleh Adumim to the east, and a slice of territory that apparently would encompass the large settlement of Ariel in Samaria. In exchange for expanding Israeli sovereignty to those areas, Israel would have given up some of its own land to the new Palestinian state.
A sketch of the land for peace offer made by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in December 2008. The mape was hand-drawn by Abbas. (photo credit: Walla News)
According to the website Walla, Olmert envisaged relinquishing Israeli territory on a one-for-one basis to the Palestinians in areas including near Afula; near Tirat Zvi, south of Beit She’an; north of Jerusalem; in the Judean Desert; and in the Lachish area. He also endorsed a tunnel route to link Gaza and the West Bank.
Olmert, as he has subsequently confirmed, was also prepared to divide Jerusalem into Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled neighborhoods, and to relinquish Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount and the entire Old City. He proposed that the “Holy Basin” be overseen instead by a five-member, non-sovereign international trusteeship, comprising Israel, the PA, Jordan, the US and Saudi Arabia.
After the September 16, 2008, meeting where Olmert’s far-reaching proposal was offered to Abbas, the former prime minister tried to formalize an agreement immediately.
“We asked them to meet the following day, Wednesday, together with map experts, in order to arrive at a final formula for the border between Palestine and Israel,” Olmert said.
Erakat called Turjeman and said they could not meet because they “had forgotten that Abbas had to go to Amman!” Erakat said they would meet the following week.
“I am still waiting for a phone call from him,” the former prime minister said this week, referring to the PA president.
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