Subscribe to our e-mail alerts

E-mail:

Israel News Feed Or subscribe to our RSS feed | What is RSS?
Israel News from Jerusalem Newswire
Peace Process

Olmert: 'Peace' agreement with PLO still possible by year's end


By Stan Goodenough
October 06, 2008

He's resigned and only waiting now to leave office as soon as a new government is formed, but Ehud Olmert continued Monday to promote what he called the very real possibility that Israel and the PLO arch-terror organization, also known as the Palestinian Authority, would reach an agreement before the end of the year.

This agreement, if he somehow still manages to oversee it, would mean that Israel "will withdraw in practice from nearly all of [Judea, Samaria and 'East' Jerusalem] if not from all of them."

Monday morning Olmert complained to visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas was not ready to sign an agreement despite his (Olmert's) unprecedented offer of Jewish lands.

Like all Israel's left wing, Olmert does not recognize Israel's right to fight for the biblical and historic land of Israel. As someone who does not accept God's giving of this land exclusively and forever to the Jewish people, the outgoing prime minister stated last week that the "dream" of a greater Israel is no more.

In an apparent attempt to shore up the new head of his Kadima Party, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is trying to form a new government which she would head, Olmert told reporters Monday his "peace plan" is not binding on her.

"The views on territorial exchange [not territorial exchange but territorial surrender - Ed] that I expressed in the interview are my view, only I am obligated by them, it was my opinion," he said.

They are "not binding to Mrs. Livni."

Like the article?
Help spread the word:
Jnewswire updates
Never miss another story
  • Inbox already too full?
    Subscribe to our
    RSS feed instead!