By Arlene Kushner
Haim Ramon. He was convicted recently of sexual impropriety, but not “moral turpitude.’ Sorry I cannot explain precisely what this means, but being exonerated of “moral turpitude” permitted him to rejoin the government after his conviction. And what do you know? Olmert, our fine upstanding prime minister, appointed him as vice premier. Not only that, he made the point of saying he did so because Ramon was his friend, and now the world knows that Ehud Olmert doesn’t forget his friends. Maybe not, but Olmert forgets a lot of other things, like how to protect our nation.
All of this is by way of a very angry introduction to news about what Ramon — who clearly was appointed as Olmert’s flunky — has apparently now done.
According to YNet, Ramon has met with PA Prime Minister Fayyad to hammer out principles to be brought to that Bush-inspired international conference in November. It is said that he is offering:
“an Israeli withdrawal from nearly all of the West Bank, including the Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, as part of a final peace deal…the border between Israel and the future Palestinian state [would] roughly follow the route of the separation fence leaving major Israeli settlement blocs and between 3 and 8 percent of the West Bank in Israel’s hands.
“This means that Ariel and Maale Adumin [would] stay within Israeli area, while settlements like Karnei Shomron, Beit El, Ofra, the haredi of town Tel Zion and many other communities [would] be evacuated and their territory handed over to the Palestinians. (Parts of Gush Etzion would be turned over.)
“In return, Israel would cede the same amount of land [as that retained for settlement past the Green Line] inside Israel to the Palestinians.” What is more, there might be a corridor between Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
“East Jerusalem [would] be divided among the two states and holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City [would] be under the control of the various religions and no national flags will be flown.
“The agreement [would]…require both sides to immediately implement stage A of the…road map: The Palestinians will disarm all armed groups in their territory, while Israel will withdraw its forces from the Palestinian towns and evacuate all illegal outposts.”
What is more, according to YNet, “In his talks with the Palestinians, Ramon pledged that immediately after the agreement is signed, Israel would hand over to the Palestinian three eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods, as [a] goodwill gesture.”
Perhaps this most of all — the suggestion of immediately compromising of Jerusalem — makes my blood boil. A goodwill gesture??!!
