Land swap could be key to Israel deal
Well, it's all happening ahead of the proposed US talks on the Middle East in an attempt to make peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The Palestinians are letting it be known that they see equal land swap as a key way to break the impasse between the two sides. This is a significant step by the Palestinians and a way to circumnavigate the fact that Israel, through her development of settlements, has created a series of facts on the ground that she will be unwilling to give up.
However, the Palestinians negotiators are insisting that Condi Rice calls for an immediate freeze on Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.
I have already reported on how the Israelis are attempting to steal land in the E1 area, by claiming to be building a road which aids the Palestinians, whilst in reality grabbing a huge chunk of Palestinian land and cutting East Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank.
Saeb Erekat is right. There is a huge disconnect between Olmert's words - which are largely for American consumption - and his actions on the ground; actions which every previous US administration have been disapproved of. Olmert's attempts to perform an annexation of the E1 land ahead of any talks in November deserves to be condemned and if Rice wants to retain any credibility with the Palestinians then she should immediately order that the Israelis freeze all West Bank activity ahead of the talks.Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian's chief negotiator, warned Ms Rice that a freeze was needed to preserve "the goodwill gained in recent talks and the two-state solution, on which peace between Israelis and Palestinians is based".
Mr Erekat's call, in a letter to the international Quartet of the US, Russia, the UN and the EU, came as his colleague Ahmed Qureia, suggested Israel would be able to keep certain parts of the West Bank in a peace deal if it was willing to yield equal amounts of territory in return.
The public airing of the land swap proposal to Associated Press by Mr Qureia, who like Mr Erekat is a member of the team trying to negotiate an accord with Israel ahead of the international Annapolis conference later this year, follows similar suggestions by Haim Ramon, a close Cabinet ally of the Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert.
Mr Erekat's letter expressed "outrage" at an order issued by the Israeli military last month confiscating 279 acres of Palestinian land for an "alternate road" for Palestinians in the West Bank, calling it "de facto annexation".
He said that at a time "when [Mr] Olmert and I have been meeting regularly to rebuild trust between us... the Government of Israel continues to create facts on the ground that are quickly foreclosing the two-state solution".
The Palestinians, by offering a land swap, are attempting two things. The first is to offer Israel a way out of handing over the larger settlements in the West Bank, and the second is to signal to Olmert that the kind of actions he is partaking of in the E1 area are a waste of time if he is only, in the future, going to have to hand over an equivalent amount of Israeli land in any peace settlement.
Now, will Condi call for an Israeli freeze? And if Condi calls, which in itself I have no great hope of, will Israel even bother to listen?
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