Jerusalem – A group of former security chiefs and other prominent Israelis have prepared a new informal peace proposal, saying Tuesday that they hoped the move would prod Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into breaking the ongoing deadlock in talks with the Palestinians.
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The formula they suggest has been offered before in formal and informal frameworks but has not produced a peace accord. It includes a Palestinian state in almost all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with border adjustments to allow Israel to keep key settlements, with a division of Jerusalem and most Palestinian refugees resettling in their state and not Israel.
The Israeli group includes former heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad security services and the military, as well as one of Israel’s wealthiest businessmen, shipping tycoon Idan Ofer.
Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, a former military chief of staff, said he and the other signatories felt the Israeli government needed to be prodded into action. “We felt we have to wake everyone up. Time is passing, and it’s not working in our favor,” he said.
The new initiative’s chances for moving public opinion of the government may depend on its founders’ ability to draw in new figures — because the ones named Tuesday as jumping on board are already known to favor generous concessions to the Palestinians in exchange for peace.
The initiative, summarized in a two-page document, offered few new ideas. Instead, it essentially endorsed peace plans offered by previous governments in an apparent effort to prod the current one into doing the same.
Past versions of this formula include a detailed but unofficial Israeli-Palestinian agreement in 2003 known as the Geneva Accord.
The new proposal closely resembles an offer submitted to the Palestinians in 2008 by Israel’s then-prime minister, Ehud Olmert. The Palestinians deemed it insufficient, and the sides never worked out details on the more complex aspects, like the division of Jerusalem.
After he took office in 2009, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu grudgingly accepted the idea of a Palestinian state but took Olmert’s offer off the table.
The Palestinian Authority, the Western-backed government in the West Bank, has largely resisted speaking to Netanyahu’s hard-line government. They say they won’t speak to Israel without a freeze of settlement construction, a demand Netanyahu rejects.
Some in Netanyahu’s government are calling on him to present an Israeli proposal, in part to ward off international pressure. Israel is bracing for an expected Palestinian effort to gain recognition for full statehood on all the lands they seek at the United Nations in September.
While a U.N. resolution would not change the situation on the ground, it could deepen Israel’s international isolation and essentially endorse the Palestinian position in negotiations.
One notion that has been floated would involve an Israeli offer of Palestinian statehood on only part of the West Bank — and Gaza — as part of in interim deal that would not require the Palestinians to forswear all further claims. Palestinians have consistently rejected that concept as well.
“I think we should take an initiative to do whatever we can to resume talks with the Palestinians,” said Dan Meridor, a Cabinet minister close to Netanyahu, speaking to journalists Tuesday. He did not elaborate.
Pressure is also coming from the opposition. Shaul Mofaz, a lawmaker from the main opposition party, Kadima, told reporters that Israel’s image was being hurt by what he termed “the ‘sit and do nothing’ policy of the current government.” Mofaz himself is a former military chief and defense minister.
Netanyahu’s office had no immediate comment on the new proposal.
Also Tuesday, a 21-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire along Gaza’s volatile border with Israel. Relatives of the man said he was collecting gravel along the border when he was shot. Impoverished Gazans often search the area for scrap metal and other materials in hopes of reselling them.
The Israeli military said the man was armed, and soldiers opened fire after spotting him.
No matter what Israel will offer, they will not accept. They don’t want Israel there period!!
Good news.
Prominant and wealthy. My kind of people.
Fools!
Why not look at history, and see that all this “land for peace” never worked?
I don’t understand. The headline of this article says: “Influential Israelis Present New Peace Initiative”. Yet the very article itself states in the beginning of the second paragraph “The formula they suggest has been offered before in formal and informal frameworks but has not produced a peace accord.” So in other words this is not a new peace initiative. It was something that was offered to the palestinians before and rejected by then (surprise, surprise). So what exactly makes this group believe that the palestinians will accept this now? Bottom line is, the Israelis have shown time and time again that they are willing to negotiate without any preconditions and are willing to make sacrifices for the sake of peace. The palestinians on the other hand have done nothing, zilch, gurnisht to help further the peace process. Perhaps this group should try and “prod” the party that needs the prodding, namely the palestinians.
Not that I think prodding the palestinians will accomplish anything but let this “Influential group” go bang on someone else’s head
To # 6 I agree. Just explain ” We would love to give land but can’t put our country in more jeprody”. Now we have pooven results of: giving more land = more terror.
I live in Jerusalem, have a son currently in the IDF, and another one in high school who will join the IDF in a few years. So please consider your response before attacking me as someone who does not understand or care about Israel’s situation. I appluad the people who put this proposal forward and I would hope to see many similar initiatives. You will point out in response that Israel has tried before and its efforts have been rebuffed? My response is “ok, so let’s keep trying.” We’re taught in Pirkei Avoth to be a people who are Ohev Shalom V’Rodeph Shalom — to love peace and chase after peace. Which apprach is more in line with that precept of our sages — to no longer try for peace because earlier attempts have failed or to keep on trying in the hopes that perhaps one day there truly will be peace?
never will be peace maybe peaces!!!