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Jerusalem – Israel should withdraw from nearly all territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war in return for peace with the Palestinians and Syria, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted on Monday as telling a newspaper.
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Olmert, in a caretaker role since quitting on September 21, said he was breaking new ground in calling for a broad pullback from the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians hope to establish a state, and in the annexed Golan Heights, which Syria wants back.
“(I am saying) what no previous Israeli leader has ever said: we should withdraw from almost all of the territories, including in East Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights,” Olmert, who resigned over corruption allegations, told Yedioth Ahronoth.
The Israeli daily called it a “legacy interview,” published on the eve of the Jewish new year, in which Olmert went further in making offers for peace than he ever did publicly when he was in active office, with greater power to see them carried out.
According to Western and Palestinian officials, Olmert has proposed in peace talks with the Palestinians an Israeli withdrawal from some 93 percent of the occupied West Bank, plus all of the Gaza Strip, from which Israel pulled out in 2005.
Olmert has said repeatedly that Israel intends to keep major Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
A peace agreement, Olmert has said, would mean Israel would have to compensate the Palestinians for the land it hopes to retain by “close to a 1-to-1 ratio.”
In exchange for the settlement enclaves, Olmert has proposed about a 5 percent land swap giving the Palestinians a desert territory adjacent to the Gaza Strip, as well as land on which to build a transit corridor between Gaza and the West Bank.
The negotiations, which Olmert has vowed to continue until he leaves office when a new government is formed, have shown few signs of progress and both sides acknowledge chances are slim of meeting Washington’s target of a deal by the end of the year.
May Hashem help him fail tremendously
A Zionist like Olmert knows perfectly well that there will be no peace with Palestinians without the return of the refugees into the Zionist state. So he continues to delude himself. Why this wishful thinking? It’s pathetic.
I hate to say it to all you people who seem to think that having a country before hashem gave it to us is right,they should give back all that was captured in 1967,maybe one jewish life will be saved cause of it,it is more worth it that the hole country,when the right time will come and we will deserve it hashem will give us back israel as promised,and hashem keeps his word,and if you take a country before hashem wants there will be no peace for jews,and jews all over the world are suffering cause of israel,happy and healthy new year to all yiden!,and may hashem keep the yiden in israel safe.
I agree that we should not have taken the land before Moshiach comes, but, now that we have it and it would affect so many people who live in those places, that it would be very hard to say – give it all back. We’re between a rock and a hard place. May Moshiach come speedily in our time.
i’m glad he’s on his way out. and to #4 Jews in golus, you are right that after Mashiach comes there will be peace in the world, but history has proven time and again that giving in to terrorists bears no fruit, and not one jewish life or any life will be saved by giving back more land.
Now that Olmert is in brainstorming mode, I would like to add my equally thoughtful solution. If all the arabs leave Israel there will be peace in Israel too.
First place your country above all, including religion. Then give the same country away. Huh…!?
Achai V’rei’ai, its simple: G-d created the body. G-d created the brain and all of its functions. When you don’t believe in G-d, common sense goes out the window. I ache for our Chiloni brothers and sisters and pray that may this be the year they discover the RBSh”O and ultimately, common sense.
Ksiva Vachasima Toiva and git gebentcht yur to all. I ask mechilla from all of you whom I bashed and I will try to be a good boy in 5769.
I see the Agudists are having a hard time with what’s going on. They seem to opt for voluntary masochism instead of obeying the Torah and fearing the warning of Kesubos 111 (“I shall make your flesh vulnerable like the deer and gazelle of the field.”). It’s 3 Shvuas guys, wake up.
If giving away the entire Yehuda and Shomron will save one Jew then I’m all for it, but because reality is that the Arabs don’t want Yehuda and Shomron they want NO Jew in Eretzs Yisroel, therefore giving them the springboard and a CORRIDOR to bat, is the height of idiocy. I have no right to make these decisions no matter how idiotic they are; only the Jews living there, they have to make those decisions themselves. We in Chutz le-oretz can only pray for their welfare and hope they make the RIGHT decisions. Zionism doesn’t exist anymore and anti-Zionism doesn’t either exist anymore by Jews. All opinions and positions are based on ones wishful thinking on what is good. The Neturei Karta or those who think that they are Neturei Karta think that if only Israel would give in then Peace will prevail. The Zionists or those who think that they are Zionists think that if only Israel gives no inch and takes a no-bones approach then peace will prevail. I say neither of you know what you are talking; there will never be peace in Israel until Moshiach comes, there cannot be peace, no matter what solution is tried. In the interim the only thing we can do is pray to HaShem to hold his right hand over his children, and pray for the only solution which is Moshiach.
He lost it
The problem is that alot of frummelach are very unsophisticated about worldly events and hence live with delusions and enjoy being armchair warriors. That’s pathetic too!!
If Israel wants peace…quit Olmert!
Anyone whose kids are not in the IDF is not entitled to an opinion. Your kids are sitting safely tucked away in yeshiva somewhere and not in Lebanon getting shot to pieces. Unless you are willing to sacrifice YOUR children in an endless war for nothing, against 375 million Arabs, do not tell me that I should send MY children off to die. If anything, Zionism was invented by Nazis to finish us all off.
Everything is in Hashems hands. Israel could not have been reestablished in this era without Hashems consent. The “zionists” are merely a vehicle – and those who deny it are “mockers” of Hashems will.
There can only be peace if religious zionists take over – if Charedim and Satmars would give up their sinat chinam (same for chilonim) and all the Arabs are thrown out along with the “post zionist” loonys.
So Olmert is drinking again?
13, you have a right to voice what happens.
I am not an Israeli, nor will i become one.
But they live in My land, and your land. You have a say. Also, their mistakes, you will have to pay for them.
NO SHABBOS NO PEACE
It has nothing to do with the Arabs. You want gay parades in Tel aviv and Jerusalem than G-d will take away the land.
it has nothing to do with gay parades…whoever desecrates the land will be spit out anyway (do you see how many hiloni israelis are living in america? yerida is bigger every year- way greater than aliya statistics) – if you want to strengthen eretz ysirael then all of your commentators living in new york should pack up and come over here now! israel needs you!! stop talking and do something.
and mikey #22 - i couldnt have said it better!