Olmert calls for return of ‘almost all’ territory

financial times
By Tobias Buck in Jerusalem

Published: September 29 2008 18:15 | Last updated: September 29 2008 18:15

Israel should withdraw from “almost all” the land it conquered more than 40 years ago and hand back east Jerusalem to the Palestinians and the Golan Heights to Syria, according to Ehud Olmert, outgoing prime minister.

His comments marked the clearest plea yet by a sitting Israeli prime minister for the country to abandon territory that is seen by many Israelis as both strategically and spiritually vital.

More than 450,000 Jewish settlers live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, and a further 20,000 in the Golan Heights. Most are vehemently opposed to abandoning their settlements, which are illegal under international law.

Successive Israeli governments – including Mr Olmert’s – have not only been reluctant to uproot the settlers, but have allowed their numbers to grow and the settlements to expand.

In an interview published on Monday, Mr Olmert, who resigned from office last week but remains caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed, argued in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s biggest newspaper, that the country had little time to lose.

“In the end we have an opportunity that is limited in time – a time so short as to cause terrible distress – in which we may be able to take a historical step in our relations with the Palestinians and a historical step in our relations with the Syrians.”

He added: “We have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, the meaning of which is that in practice we will withdraw from almost all the territories, if not all the territories. We will leave a percentage of these territories in our hands, but will have to give the Palestinians a similar percentage, because without that there will be no peace.”

Although Mr Olmert is now a lame-duck prime minister, he could still have until early next year to pull off a deal with the Palestinian leadership and the Syrian government.

While most analysts believe that unlikely, his remarks may be designed to prepare the Israeli public for a possible peace agreement under his successor.

Mr Olmert said a deal would have to include handing back east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after the 1967 war.

“Whoever wants to hold on to all of the city’s territory will have to bring 270,000 Arabs [living in occupied east Jerusalem] inside the fences of sovereign Israel. It won’t work.”

Handing back the Golan Heights – the price that Syria is demanding in exchange for a peace deal – would entail risks, he conceded. But he added: “Whoever wants to operate with zero risks should move to Switzerland or Iceland.”

His comments met fierce criticism from both the political left and right. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the rightwing Yisrael Beiteinu party, denounced the prime minister’s comments as “insanity”. He told Israel’s army radio: “I think that someone who today talks about withdrawal to the 1967 borders is bringing on war.”

Leftwing politicians criticised Mr Olmert for speaking his mind at a time when he had lost the power and credibility to make the territorial concessions he talked about.

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Jewish terrorists tried to murder Professor Zeev Sternhell

haretz 28 sep 2008

"Israel Prize winner Zeev Sternhell was lightly injured yesterday when a pipe bomb exploded outside his home in Jerusalem, in what police suspect could be a new campaign by right-wing extremists to target prominent left-wingers.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter called the incident "a nationalist terror attack apparently perpetrated by Jews" and said the police would not rest until "those terrorists" were behind bars.

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telegraph
29 sep 2008

"Police found posters in his Jerusalem neighbourhood offering a one million shekel (£160,000) reward to anyone killing a member of Israel's Peace Now movement that opposes Jewish settlement on land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

He said there was a "direct link" between the attack on Sternhell and the assassination of former premier Yitzhak Rabin, who was gunned down by a right-wing Jewish extremist in 1995 for his efforts to make peace with the Palestinians.

"A bad wind of extremism, hate, evil, violence and contempt for state authorities is blowing through certain sectors of the Israeli public and threatening Israeli democracy," said Mr Olmert, who is engaged in land-for-peace talks with the Palestinians."

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ynetnews
26 sep 2008

Prof Zeev Sternhell: `For dozens of years I have been claiming that the settlements are a historical disaster,` he said, and they may make the State binational, and `this would be the end of the State of Israel.... One thing is clear: (former Prime Minister Yitzhak) Rabin's murder was much more severe than what happened to me. But we have reached a reality in which it is okay to use violence against those who don't share the other side's opinions.`

He added he felt people did learn a lesson following the Rabin murder but that reality proved him wrong.

`Things are getting worse, particularly because of the violence in the territories directed against Palestinians. This cannot be separated from the violence directed at Jews who support them.`

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photo: `Israeli pro-Palestinian historian and professor Zeev Sternhell`