Citing Al Jazeera Leaks, Lieberman Pushes Interim Agreement

PNN – Palestine News Network – 24.01.11 – 13:41

Jerusalem – PNN – On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman seized on the recently released “Palestine Paper,” over 1600 pages of Palestinian documents leaked by Al Jazeera TV, to push his idea for an interim agreement between Israel and Palestinians instead of a long-term peace agreement.

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Right-wing Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (PNN Archive).

“What needs to be clear is that even the most left-wing government, like that of [former Israeli PM] Olmert and [former foreign minister] Tzipi Livni did not manage to reach an agreement, including even the most painful concessions,” said Lieberman.

Lieberman did not enumerate the “painful concessions” proposed during the 2008 negotiations to which the Al Jazeera documents refer—in fact, the conventional understanding of the leaks is that the Palestinians provided most of the concessions, including “the biggest Yerushalaim in history,” including 200,000 illegal settlers in Jerusalem-area settlements such as French Hill and Gilo.

While much of the leaked debate between Abbas and Olmert centered around how much of the West Bank could be ceded to Israel for settlements—Olmert wanted 6.8%, Abbas held relatively firm to 1.9%– Lieberman’s own map suggests that Israel annex up to 55% of the territory.

“One day we must define our red lines: what we are prepared to do and what we aren’t,” said Lieberman in an interview with Israeli army radio. “[PM] Netanyahu knows of the plan I am working on. I have been urging an interim agreement since the day this government was established.”

An interim agreement would define “provisional borders” for Palestine, which Lieberman insists would have road networks where territorial contiguity would be impossible. Plans for a territorially incontiguous Palestine have been rejected soundly in the past.

PNN – Palestine News Network – Citing Al Jazeera Leaks, Lieberman Pushes Interim Agreement.

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