Thursday, December 17, 2009
We've mentioned the generous offer Ehud Olmert made for peace a couple of times now. This is the offer that Abbas basically had no response to (because in reality they have been exposed over and over again as uninterested in actually forming a state). Haaretz has an article recounting the background again, and time it includes the actual proposed map [PDF]: Haaretz exclusive: Olmert's plan for peace with the Palestinians.
The map appears to represent the type of land swaps that any serious final status agreement is going to involve by drawing lines around where people live.
[h/t: Citizen Wald]
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I was browsing about Jeffrey Goldberg's Atlantic blog last night and noted a few things I wanted to comment on. I generally like Goldberg's material, though his left-lean sometimes colors things in a way I don't agree with, he's well... Read More
The Foundation for Middle East Peace published the map a year ago, here, and also ran Olmert's map of Jerusalem.
Thanks, Martin.
Good Lord. The map looks like Swiss cheese.
I'm reminded of the UN Partition Plan of 1947... with borders you could walk across in two places. This was a lot more dangerous for Israel than the 1949-1967 borders, which Abba Eban rightly called "Auschwitz borders".
For two peoples at complete peace with one another, such a plan might make sense. (Of course, for two peoples at complete peace with one another, borders are hardly necessary.)
Militarily, that map is a nightmare. Cutting off the residents of Kedumim or Ariel would not be difficult. Has Olmert no recollection at all of the 1948 siege of Jerusalem, made possible by the taking of a single major road?
The man was making serious plans for the sleeping arrangements when the lion lies down with the lamb.
Granted, Abbas didn't take his offer, because Abbas is a fool. But suppose he had? The pressure then would have been to jump to the final status talks -- because the end had already been agreed upon! (In other words, if we agree which lions will lie down next to which lambs, then we'll inevitably forget that lions and lambs are NOT yet reconciled... and we'll be pressured to act as though they were.)
Unbelievable.
The UN thinks "Bantustans" are OK when they are for Jews.