Israeli goal must be to conduct fruitful peace negotiations with its partner the PLO, and by fruitfulness I also include producing an agreement which can be carried out in reality. All the rest are tactical means which should be changeable according to present annd future reality.
The Mecca agreement adopts the Prisoners` Document, which calls for negotiating the establishment of a Palestinian state in the `67 borders. Provided that terror ceases during the negotiations, this is all that is needed to produce a deal with Abbas. And if it is agreed in advance that the deal will be subject to a referendum, it will also become practical, because the Palestinian people want peace as polls shows. If Hamas refuses to carry out the deal, it will be marginalized as a party and become eliminatable by force.
All the preconditions are unnecessary restrictions on the "means" part. Get what you can out of them, and throw away the rest. Then move on.
Would Olmert do that? I am very doubtful. Israel is subject to very little international pressure, unlike the Palestinians, and will not modify its desires so readily. Olmert wants to annex all the area on the Israeli side of the "wall", plus more. This Pavlovian hunger for land will not change fast. It is so much easier to declare the new government a non-partner. |
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