Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., September 09, 2007 Elul 26, 5767 | | Israel Time: 06:26 (EST+7)
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Vice Premier Haim Ramon. (Motti Kimche)
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Last update - 12:12 07/09/2007
Report: Ramon offers PA West Bank pullout, territory exchange
By The Associated Press

A confidant of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has offered a broad West Bank pullout in talks with Palestinian leaders on a final-status peace deal, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.

Vice Premier Haim Ramon met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad and other officials in an effort to put together a joint Israeli-Palestinian declaration of principles that will be presented in November at a Mideast peace conference slated to be held in the U.S., Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported.

Ramon is offering the Palestinians an Israeli withdrawal from nearly the entire West Bank, including the Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, as part of a final peace deal, according to the report by two respected correspondents for the mass circulation daily.

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Tzahi Moshe, a spokesman for Ramon, would not comment on the report. Palestinian Information Minister Riad Malki denied that Ramon had met with Fayad or with any other Palestinian government officials.

According to the report's account of Ramon's offer, the border between Israel and the future Palestinian state will roughly follow the route of Israel's West Bank security barrier, leaving major Israeli settlement blocs and between 3 and 8 percent of the West Bank in Israel's hands.

In return, Israel will cede to the same amount of land inside Israel to the Palestinians to make up for the annexed territory, the report said - possibly including a land corridor between the West Bank and Gaza, a central ongoing Palestinian demand.

Palestinians who became refugees when Israel was founded in 1948 will not be allowed into Israel, but only into the Palestinian state, and an international fund will be set up to pay for their rehabilitation. Holy sites in Jerusalem's Old City will be under the control of the various religions and no national flags will be flown, the report said.

Ramon's plan closely resembles an Israeli offer to the Palestinians at a failed peace summit in 2000. U.S. President Bill Clinton, who hosted the summit, later blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for rejecting the Israeli proposal, saying he missed the opportunity to create a Palestinian state. A new round of Israeli-Palestinian violence erupted not long afterward, lasting for most of the past seven years and claiming thousands of lives.

According to the Yediot report, Olmert approves of Ramon's negotiating activities. If the efforts succeed, the report said, Olmert will publicly adopt the results, and if they fail, he will portray them as a personal effort by Ramon.

Peace moves between Israel and the Palestinians have been intensifying since June, when the Islamic militants of Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip. Following the takeover, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah movement formed a government of Western-aligned moderates in the West Bank, winning broad backing from an international community eager prevent new gains for the Islamic hard-liners.

Hamas has remained largely isolated in Gaza.

Olmert and Abbas have met several times in recent months. Israel refused at first to discuss the three topics known as the core issues of the conflict - final borders, Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees and their millions of descendants. But the two leaders tackled those issues at their last meeting on August 28.

Damping hopes for a speedy Israeli pullout, however, are concerns that near-daily Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza, where Israeli forces pulled out two years ago, could be repeated in the West Bank if the army leaves security in the hands of Abbas' weak forces.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has warned that no West Bank pullout would be possible until Israel has developed a missile shield to counter rocket fire from the West Bank, which could threaten the country's population centers and paralyze its only international airport. Barak said this will take at least two and a half years.
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  1.   Cutting Israel in two by a land corridor.Only traitors would acce 12:09  |  Absolute Sweden 07/09/07
  2.   It will never happen. 12:17  |  Avraham 07/09/07
  3.   Goodness, I hope he`s serious... 12:32  |  Michael Steiner 07/09/07
  4.   No Peace without the Old City 12:37  |  Bandar Michaels 07/09/07
  5.   Any exchange of territory must be of territory of the same size 12:51  |  Dafna 07/09/07
  6.   ABSLUT SWEDEN 1 13:07  |  JON FEIGENBAUM 07/09/07
  7.   it will happen and 13:11  |  ziggurat 07/09/07
  8.   land swap 13:19  |  Joseba 07/09/07
  9.   DAFNA #6 13:24  |  JON FEIGENBAUM 07/09/07
  10.   every chaim yankel has an offer 13:31  |  peter 07/09/07
  11.   STRANGE COINCIDENCE 13:39  |  indrajaya 07/09/07
  12.   Jon F,a tunnel`s a pie in the sky,technologically and politically 13:48  |  Absolute Sweden 07/09/07
  13.   Ramon offers PA West bank 13:56  |  khader herzallah 07/09/07
  14.   Avraham 14:00  |  Nik Miller 07/09/07
  15.   Good morning, Mr. Feigenbaum... 14:03  |  Giles Martin 07/09/07
  16.   This offer is a ploy 14:18  |  Natallie Durson 07/09/07
  17.   12 ABSOLUTE SWEDEN 14:30  |  JON FEIGENBAUM 07/09/07
  18.   Move the settlers NOW 14:31  |  spyguy 07/09/07
  19.   kiss of death from the expert 14:34  |  henry 07/09/07
  20.   WHAT ABOUT G-D`s PLAN? 14:38  |  Barak 07/09/07
  21.   Here we go again 14:48  |  Joseph 07/09/07
  22.   Olmert has no mandat to give up even a rock ! 14:50  |  Michael 07/09/07
  23.   Jon Feigenbaum, a "corridor" does not have to be part of any 14:57  |  Dafna 07/09/07
  24.   ABBAS TREASON.... 15:08  |  Patriot 07/09/07
  25.   Civil War will occur if This happens 15:20  |  ralphsrant1 07/09/07
  26.   Forgotten the Jordan Valley again? 15:26  |  H50 07/09/07
  27.   H50, why don`t you share with us your full Arab name so that 15:44  |  Robert 07/09/07
  28.   It is, of course, a sweet plan. 15:48  |  Johnboy 07/09/07
  29.   It is Israel`s Land 16:00  |  Brod 07/09/07
  30.   Move the "Israeli" arabs NOW 16:09  |  Menashe Levi 07/09/07
  31.   Ramon a bearer of tidings.... 16:14  |  Mona 07/09/07
  32.   #20 - Devil`s Plan for War 16:21  |  Double Click 07/09/07
  33.   Nagorno-Karabakh, Kaliningrad enclave, West Berlin, Danzig 16:26  |  DJStahl 07/09/07
  34.   #23 Dafna has a funny way with words.... 16:29  |  Johnboy 07/09/07
  35.   Kadima=Meretz 16:38  |  Zvi 07/09/07
  36.   #20, Barak, that was then 16:44  |  newageblues 07/09/07
  37.   WELCOMED NEWS BY THE VICE PREMIER! 16:45  |  Smadar 07/09/07
  38.   The Failed Policy of Something For Nothing 16:55  |  Yoram 07/09/07
  39.   East Bank, West Bank, South Bank, North Bank 17:11  |  Andras Bereny 07/09/07
  40.   Land Giveaway 17:13  |  Alex Barak 07/09/07
  41.   could also include overlapping populations 17:30  |  Paul Freedman 07/09/07
  42.   Are You Any Happier Now? by Andras Bereny 17:32  |  Andras Bereny 07/09/07
  43.   #23 - Dafna One major problem... 18:00  |  Eric 07/09/07
  44.   Durson Again 18:02  |  Jason, Ph.D. 07/09/07
  45.   spyguy 18 wrong 18:04  |  alan 07/09/07
  46.   response to khader herzallah 18:07  |  Israeli guy 07/09/07
  47.   Ray of Hope 18:09  |  Jason, Ph.D. 07/09/07
  48.   Move all Israel´s Jews to US, Canada and Australia 18:12  |  Salomon S Mizrahi 07/09/07
  49.   22 Mickael - Mandates 18:20  |  Mark of Lewiston 07/09/07
  50.   #24 18:22  |  D.R. Zukerman 07/09/07
  51.   eric #28 18:36  |  S 07/09/07
  52.   to Joseba 18:40  |  Simon 07/09/07
  53.   Israel should take more lands from Syria and Lebanon 18:48  |  Tamir Palestine 07/09/07
  54.   tunnel is easy 19:34  |  ja magill 07/09/07
  55.   Are you Sure Eric? 19:52  |  Jason, Ph.D. 07/09/07
  56.   Nonsense, Salomon Mizrahi 19:54  |  Polybios 07/09/07
  57.   1) Dafna/Eric. 2) #31 Jason: What`s stronger: LOVE OR HATE? 20:06  |  J.M.Jordan 07/09/07
  58.   #32 --- Move all Israel´s Jews to US, Canada and Australi 20:55  |  Schwartz 07/09/07
  59.   Will someone please kick these idiots out of office? 21:08  |  Nemesis 07/09/07
  60.   #22.. Michael 21:11  |  Nemesis 07/09/07
  61.   #20..Barak 21:12  |  Nemesis 07/09/07
  62.   Only eight per cent 21:13  |  Canderra 07/09/07
  63.   Jason #34 21:27  |  Canderra 07/09/07
  64.   swede and feigenbaum: undergorund passage? 21:35  |  uzi 07/09/07
  65.   Canderra, #34 22:40  |  Jason, Ph.D. 07/09/07
  66.   @26, h50, where did you get 4mln pals in westbank? 22:51  |  vladimir 07/09/07
  67.   The Ramon method of convincing 22:52  |  Omar 07/09/07
  68.   refugees return? 22:55  |  bri 07/09/07
  69.   Natallie - The Offer 22:56  |  Alan 07/09/07
  70.   39Canderra Israel has a lot of natural resources?? 00:29  |  Rob 08/09/07
  71.   He has screwed everyone else so............ 00:44  |  Ronnbo 08/09/07
  72.   Natural resources 01:08  |  Canderra 08/09/07
  73.   Were we told that the SECURITY Walls were temporary.... 01:38  |  Hamza 08/09/07
  74.   It looks that at long last there will be PEACE. 01:42  |  Arik 08/09/07
  75.   Is this bedtime fictional story time? 01:44  |  Don Camillo 08/09/07
  76.   52Candera re Natural Resources and Gang rule. 02:34  |  Rob 08/09/07
  77.   #56..Arik 02:42  |  Nemesis 08/09/07
  78.   Land for pieces of paper 04:53  |  Avi 08/09/07
  79.   #1 05:30  |  bill 08/09/07
  80.   #58 05:42  |  bill