A quick look at the initial reports about al Jazeera’s so-called leaks raises my b.s. meter to its very top. Listen to this quote and tell me you don’t think there’s an effort out to utterly discredit the Palestinian leadership (such as it is):
One document quoted Erekat as telling an Israeli official: “It is no secret that …we are offering you the biggest Yerushalayim in history.” He used the Hebrew word for Jerusalem.
Ahmed Qurie, the lead Palestinian negotiator in 2008, was quoted as proposing that Israel annex all Jewish settlements in Jerusalem except Har Homa. He also said Israel could keep control of a part of the Old City of Jerusalem.
“This is the first time in history that we make such a proposition,” the document quoted Ahmed Qurie as saying.
Really? Saab Erekat called Jerusalem “Yerushalayim”? That’s awfully convenient, if you’re looking to discredit Erekat utterly in Arab eyes.
I’m not buying either quote. And I’m especially not buying the so-called intransigence of the Israeli side. The fact that the Guardian says it has verified the documents is meaningless. The Guardian has had an anti-Israel agenda for decades. Let someone else (preferably several someones) verify the documents before I believe them.
After years of Rabid Rabbo and Erekat the Non-negotiator screaming they’ll never give an inch, paying Dahlan to fill the schools and airwaves with “Kill the Jews!” songs and lessons, they were supposedly doing this behind closed doors?
I wonder what color crayon these things were written with.
-ls/cm
Erekat:
Let me recount two historical events, even if I am revealing a secret. On July 23, 200, in his meeting with President Arafat in Camp David, President Clinton said: “You will be the first president of a Palestinian state, within the 1967 borders – give or take, considering the land swap – and East Jerusalem will be the capital of the Palestinian state, but we want you, as a religious man, to acknowledge that the Temple of Solomon is located underneath the Haram Al-Sharif.†Yasser Arafat said to Clinton defiantly: “I will not be a traitor. Someone will come to liberate it after 10, 50, or 100 years. Jerusalem will be nothing but the capital of the Palestinian state, and there is nothing underneath or above the Haram Al-Sharif except for Allah.†That is why Yasser Arafat was besieged, and that is why he was killed unjustly.
In November 2008… Let me finish… Olmert, who talked today about his proposal to Abu Mazen, offered the 1967 borders, but said: “We will take 6.5% of the West Bank, and give in return 5.8% from the 1948 lands, and the 0.7% will constitute the safe passage, and East Jerusalem will be the capital, but there is a problem with the Haram and with what they called the Holy Basin.†Abu Mazen too answered with defiance, saying: “I am not in a marketplace or a bazaar. I came to demarcate the borders of Palestine – the June 4, 1967 borders – without detracting a single inch, and without detracting a single stone from Jerusalem, or from the holy Christian and Muslim places. This is why the Palestinian negotiators did not sign…
And here’s Jackson Diehl:
In our meeting Wednesday, Abbas acknowledged that Olmert had shown him a map proposing a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank — though he complained that the Israeli leader refused to give him a copy of the plan. He confirmed that Olmert “accepted the principle” of the “right of return” of Palestinian refugees — something no previous Israeli prime minister had done — and offered to resettle thousands in Israel. In all, Olmert’s peace offer was more generous to the Palestinians than either that of Bush or Bill Clinton; it’s almost impossible to imagine Obama, or any Israeli government, going further.
Abbas turned it down. “The gaps were wide,” he said.
There are many more quotes. But the sexier story is that Israel is the intransigent one, and the PA was willing to settle—at least, for the Guardian readership. I’ve got a theory on who created the “leaks” and why. I’ll post about it later or tomorrow.