Israel Matzav

'Palestinians' offer concessions on borders?

The Wall Street Journal reports that the 'Palestinians' have offered 3.8% of Judea and Samaria to Israel in exchange for land elsewhere in Israel. If true, that would be double the 1.9% Abu Bluff offered Ehud Olmert in late 2008. Of course, that's still far less than what Olmert proposed to keep.

The Palestinians' unexpected offer has been greeted warily in Israel and by some members of the Obama administration, according to these officials. Palestinians believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no intention of reaching a peace deal and thus may have calculated they can make generous offers without having to worry about following through, these officials said.

...

Israel told Mr. Mitchell it may consider offering some confidence-building measures to the Palestinians, Mr. Netanyahu's office said in a statement. The statement said Palestinians must make reciprocal gestures, including stopping calls for the international community to isolate and boycott Israel.

The statement singled out Palestinian lobbying against Israel's acceptance earlier this month into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the world economic body.

"Israel expects the Palestinian leadership to work toward creating a positive atmosphere in the talks and not to conduct international activities against Israel," the statement said.

Palestinians told Mr. Mitchell they are prepared to match offers that they made to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during peace negotiations in 2008, and may be willing to double the amount of West Bank land to be included in a land swap, according to the officials briefed on the negotiations.

According to Israeli and Palestinian accounts of the 2008 one-on-one talks, Mr. Abbas offered Mr. Olmert an exchange of 1.9% of West Bank land for an equal amount of Israeli territory. Mr. Olmert countered with a proposed swap of a much larger amount of land. The new Palestinian offer would still fall short of matching the amount of land offered by Mr. Olmert.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:19 PM