Olmert to give away Temple Mount?
We've had a lot of on again, off again confirmations and denials, but it seems evident that Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert is trying to negotiate a finalPalestinian Authority Prime Minister Saalam Fayad denied a Yediot Ahronot report on Thursday that the Palestinians and Israel were holding backchannel peace talks - but said the two sides had begun discussing core issues that had held up an accord.There was a story earlier this week (sorry, no link) that said that the talks were hung up over the 'right of return' of the descendants of 'Palestinians' who left Israel sixty years ago after being urged to do so by the Arab leadership.
"I can't say that we are now negotiating final status issues. But there are beginnings of talks about the fundamental issues that need to be agreed upon to end this conflict," Fayad told the Foreign Press Association, a group that represents some 500 journalists covering Israel and the Palestinian territories for foreign media.
But this morning, WorldNetDaily reports what the price of Olmert's 'negotiations' might be, and it's one I certainly hope Israelis won't accept: The Temple Mount.
Palestinian negotiators drafting an agreement behind the scenes with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office have made clear they will not accept any final peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state forfeits the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, WND has learned.That's enough proof that the story is true. And yes, I think Olmert would do it. And then he would move to France to escape the wrath of Israelis.
According to a report in Israel's Yediot Aharonot daily yesterday, Olmert is willing to discuss joint Israeli-Palestinian control over the Temple Mount complex. The report didn't state the positions of the Palestinian side on the issue.
A chief Palestinian negotiator, speaking to WND on condition his name be withheld, said yesterday, "there can be no agreement with Israel unless we get complete sovereignty of the Mount. Once Palestinian control over the [Temple Mount] is fixed, then we will make assurances for Jewish visits to the site."
The chief negotiator said aides from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization have been hammering out the parameters of a final status agreement for presentation in November at a U.S.-backed international summit regarding the Middle East.
Issues already discussed between Israel and the Palestinians reportedly include the division of parts of Jerusalem and debates regarding permanent borders between Israel and the PA.
The November international conference and talk from the Bush administration the past few weeks has led many here to speculate the U.S. will push in the near future for intense Israeli-Palestinian negotiations leading to a Palestinian state.
With a year and a half left in office, President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been urging meetings between Abbas and Olmert to establish a framework for momentum leading to a breakthrough at November's conference. Olmert and Abbas have been meeting bi-monthly in summits brokered by the U.S.
Asked by WND whether Olmert is willing to forfeit the Temple Mount in an agreement with the Palestinians, David Baker, a spokesman for the prime minister, had no comment.
As to Judea and Samaria, Olmert has apparently already agreed to give those away:
The talk of behind-the-scenes negotiations follows a WND report earlier this week stating newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres has quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish state to evacuate and transfer to the Palestinians nearly the entire West Bank and several Arab Israeli cities located within territory that is undisputedly Israel's according to the international community.Excuse me while I puke.... And then go tear my clothes if this actually happens....
The West Bank is strategic territory that runs alongside Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. It is home to many biblical Jewish communities and some of Judaism's holiest sites.
Peres has presented his initiative to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to top aides for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the past few weeks, after he took office as Israeli president last month, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told WND.
The official role of president here is limited largely to ceremonial matters; the president does not create foreign policy.
Olmert is mulling over the plan and agrees with much of its contents, the diplomatic sources said.
Peres' plan calls for Israel to hand 97-percent of the West Bank over to Abbas, with Israel retaining a small number of the territory's Jewish communities. In exchange for Israel keeping some land, the Jewish state will give the PA control of Arab Israeli cities north of Tel Aviv which, together with the evacuated West Bank territory, would amount to the equivalent of 100 percent of the West Bank.
Update 5:36 pm
I'm being asked online whether Olmert could really do this. Here is my response:
There's no constitution here so it's not like he needs "advice and consent of the Senate" (two thirds) as in the US.
When Rabin signed Oslo II, he decided to get Knesset approval - really just as a matter of form. It passed 61-59.
Olmert has a 78 (out of 120)-member coalition, most of whom are scared to death of new elections because they would likely lose their seats. So the odds of unseating Olmert before his term expires in 2010 are not good. And all he has to do to make sure that they can't vote against it is to call it a no-confidence vote.
There are a lot of Israelis - mostly in the Tel Aviv - Haifa corridor - who couldn't care less about Jerusalem, and who regard our tenuous hold on the Temple Mount as more trouble than it's worth. These people never visit Jerusalem (they purport to be afraid to visit) and given that the city itself is becoming more heavily ultra-Orthodox and Arab (seculars and modern Orthodox have been moving out in droves because you can only get apartments here for the most part and nearly all the jobs are government) they may not make too much of a fuss if Olmert re-divides the city exactly as it was divided before 1967 (with perhaps some adjustment to make sure they don't have to deal with 200,000 people like me who live in Jerusalem but over the green line).
If I've made that calculation, so has Olmert.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:53 PM
3 Comments:
"Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site"
But not Israelism's holiest site.
Carl,
I hate to say this...
But if Olmert agrees to give away the Temple Mount, I would completely understand it if someone assassinated him. (not that I advocate murder, but I would understand why he would be killed, if he did that)
Words fail me...I just will pray to Hashem that this is all untrue.
Israel Matzav: Olmert to give away Temple Mount?
Brothers and Sisters…
Have we forgotten…? Have we forgotten why there is a Jewish State in the first place? Now our youth dodging service in the IDF; our leaders are giving away holy Jewish land with impunity; Olmert and Peres are negotiating and making deals with terrorists and murders; we are betraying our heritage and our identity. Can't we see the writing on the wall?
Olmert and Peres have become a part of the Israeli secular (majority?) who has no love, connection, or interest in the Temple Mount, Jerusalem as our eternal Capital, or Judea and Samaria for that matter. Olmert and Peres could care less what will happen to the Jews who live there. They have their own agenda… and that is to go down in history, along with President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the great peace-makers of our time, and (if their scheming and collaboration succeeds) with a Nobel Peace Prize for their treachery.
It's too bad that there is no prize for traitorous conduct in office, for betraying your country, your people, and your religion... Olmert and Peres would be the undisputable winners. Forget the Knesset, the "Good Old Boy" politicians have chained themselves to their seats and they would rival those of the 1920s in Georgia, Tennessee, or Alabama in the Southern United States. Our MKs are only interested in preserving their own interests and position, not in the "Jewish" future of Israel.
Isn't it about time that the Israelis who "Care" about our heritage; who "Care" about what it means to be a Jew; who care about the future of our children; and who "Care" about keeping Israel a Jewish State rather than a secular abomination stand up and he heard before it's too late? Elections in 2010 are too far away... act now to force new elections or be prepared to be forced out of what was once Israel.
But what do I know... I'm just an old retired Jew who is a disabled Army veteran and who lives in the U.S. I've been told by some that Israel doesn’t need or want any more American Jewish Retirees" making Aliyah. I've been told to "mind my own business". But how can I forget thee O'Jerusalem?? I am still a Jew; I save my shekels all year so I can visit Israel. I give what I can to Jewish causes, I do my best as an activist in a pro-active Jewish organization that protects our interests and people in the Diaspora, oh, and I did fight in the Sinai in October of 1973 with brave men whose love of Hashem, Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, our Heritage, our land, and the future and preservation of our country as a Jewish State and Jewish Homeland still burned within them.
The flame that I witnessed and felt in burning our hearts then must not be allowed to die… to be smothered by those who hold secular interests above the Torah, our people and our destiny.
I want to scream at the top of my lungs “for the love of Hashem and the Jewish people, do not give away our land!” Too much Jewish blood has been shed protecting it... and know this. What is lost can never be recovered in today's world.
Wake up and remember these five principals:
AVAHAT YISROEL
HADAR
BARZEL
MISHMAAT
BITACHON
If you have any feelings at all when you hear the words
“NEVER AGAIN” … do your duty to save Israel
That's my 2 shekels worth.
Bill Maniaci
B’nai Elim Blogmaster
http://bnaielim.blogspot.com/
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