DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 28, 2013,
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu lamented Monday, Oct. 28 that the release Tuesday night of 26 jailed Palestinians serving life sentences for murdering Israelis, the cause of widespread popular ire, was “one of the hardest decisions” he has ever made. But he faces much harder decisions from the list of tough demands, DEBKAfile’s sources report were presented Israel by the Palestinians in ongoing US-sponsored negotiations, The prime minister has not made them known to the Israeli public. The new Palestinian terms are so harsh as to surely defy even US Secretary of State John Kerry’s skills in bridging differences.
The prime minister also kept mum about his offer to the Palestinians of financial compensation for land remaining under Israeli control – the first time any Israeli leader has put a price tag on disputed territory.
The 16 Palestinian demands, which DEBKAfile reveals exclusively for the first time below, make the release of convicted Palestinian murderers a dangerous exercise in futility, because each demand is enough to drive the negotiations into impasse, just as Mahmoud Abbas did two years ago.
After seeing the Palestinian list, Netanyahu should have put the release of prisoners on hold until Abbas comes around to a rational perception of the negotiations as a give-and-take process for the object of reaching an agreement – not an opportunity for outrageous extortion.
Israel’s senior negotiator Justice Minister Tzipi Livni tried arguing that the Palestinians were just making an opening bid and they expected it to be driven down in the bargaining process. However, negotiations have been going on for three months and the process is into the fourth month of the nine-month period assigned up to deadline.
Mahmoud Abbas, rather than seeking common ground, has used the time to raise his price for a deal to an exorbitant level, while keeping his hand firmly on the terrorist spigot.
It is a matter of record that a large proportion of jailed terrorists have reverted to violence after they walked in the past through the exits of Israeli jails.
First published list of Palestinian demands:
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The United States and Israel must acknowledge that the Palestinian state is “under occupation.” (This is the Palestinian response to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demand to recognize Israel as the Jews’ national state.)
Israeli must repeal legislation extending Israeli law to East Jerusalem
The Palestinians will have full sovereignty over their air space. (This will bar Israeli air force flights over Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip).
The Palestinians will have exclusive control of all border crossings to neighboring nations. i.e. Israel and Jordan.
Israel’s withdrawal to the pre-1967 boundaries is not enough. Its pull-back must go all the way to the 1949 armistice lines, additionally annexing to the Palestinian state broad strips of Israeli land that were demilitarized at that time. Among the areas which the Palestinians want to lay hands on are the Ayalon Valley, the Latrun enclave and the Armon Hantatiz district of Jerusalem between the Old City and West Jerusalem; the Huleh Lake Valley; the Golan slopes running down to the Sea of Galilee; and the Nitzana belt north of the Gaza Strip – plus one third of Dead Sea water and shore.
( The Palestinians hope to grab substantial Israeli territory beyond the pre-1967 borders by invoking the long moribund 1949 accords.)
Electromagnetic space (radio frequencies, satellite and other communications) will be under sole Palestinian control
The Palestinians are ready to relinquish 1.9 percent of West Bank territory.
All parts of East Jerusalem including the shrines sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews will come under sole Palestinian authority against a pledge of freedom of worship.
Israel and its armed forces will draw back from the Palestinian state over a three-year period. Six months after the drawdown is complete, the Palestinians will be willing to sign final peace treaties with the State of Israel
The US and Israel must accept the settlement of the Palestinian refugee problem as “a just and agreed solution.”
Every Palestinian refugee (as per the Palestinian Authority’s definition of up to the fourth generation) will be free to choose between three options: settlement in Israel or the Palestinian state or staying at their present locations.
Whichever option is chosen, the refugees will be entitled to appropriate restitution.
Only when the refugee issue is finally resolved will the Palestinians agree to declare their dispute with Israel at an end
An international mechanism will be tasked with administering the disposition of the Palestinian refugees and their resettlement. It will be composed of Palestinian, Israeli, American, European, Canadian, Australian, Japanese and Arab League representatives
The Palestinian state will be authorized to sign treaties including military pacts without the intervention of a third party, such as Israel.
All parts of the Palestinian state will be clear of Israeli civilian and military presence.
yamit82 Said:
While it doesn’t, the Arabs hate him enough to see him grovel and act like a monkey and an ape. They have no interest in raising his stature. Jewish humanity? Surely you jest – look at how he treats the Jewish survivors of Arab terror!
mar55 Said:
like the way you put things.
Yidvocate Said:
Maybe but it can also be a Redux of what G-d did to Pharaoh.
Does anyone believe Abbas will accept less than what Olmet offered him and he refused or what Barak offered to Arafat and he refused?????
There may not be a final agreement but that does not preclude BB offering up more concessions?
Bibi has already shown Obama who is boss. Bibi has his OWN reasons.
Look, neither you nor I want Israel to give up land. Frankly, I think Netanyahu is stalling. He has no intention of giving up land.
You say the Palestinians will not give up on the eastern half of Jerusalem.
Even if the Palestinians gave up Jerusalem ,,,
Israel would still not give the Palestinians an open border with Jordan, water rights under their soil, and contiguity, even in areas A&B. Nor would Israel withdraw settlers.
I am not saying Israel should give any of those concessions to the Palestinians.
I AM SAYING neither side will give up core issues … that is all.
Netanyahu is stalling because he does not know what to do.
You know he will NEVER
1) Give the Palestinians a free border
2) Give the Palestinians water rights
3) Withdraw the settlers
So he is doing what you want; he just does not have the guts to announce it.
@ Bear Klein:
We’d get it all of course! A piece of worthless paper to take to the privy. What we’d have to give up would be the heart and soul of our land.
@ Bert:
Bibi is prohibited by agreement with the USA on the negotiations NOT to release information on the talks. Only Kerry is authorized to release information. So what we have heard is unofficial even though this has been the PA position for ever so it is believable.
These talks will not come to fruition though I am worried if it is true that Abbas may consider an interim agreement.
What would we have to give up in an interim agreement. Would we get anything?
@ Bert:
Yes Bert, to our everlasting shame, it is the Arabs who always save us from ourselves!
Note that P.M. Netanyahu is so corrupt that he is actually trying to hide the PLO demands from the public. The greatest danger to Israel is their corrupt leadership led by Netanyahu who lacks any Jewish backbone.
Ironically it is again the PLO that keeps coming to the rescue by their extreme demands. In 2000 Ehud Barak was willing to give in to almost every demand by Arafat and would place Israel in dire danger. It was Arafat who saved Israel by rejecting Israel’s surrender and starting another intifada including bombing Israeli civilians inside Israel.
All of which are deal breakers and constitute Israel signing its own death warrant.
There is zero chance for a peace agreement if only because Israel has finally run out of land to give away.
And the joker is that if Israel somehow overlooks all this and does give the Arabs all they demand – the Arabs will still not agree to end the conflict with Israel.