GAZA CITY, 28 November 2006 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, seeking to build on a shaky cease-fire with the Palestinians, offered yesterday to reduce checkpoints, release frozen funds and free prisoners in exchange for a captured soldier by the Palestinians in a serious push for peace.
In what was billed as a major policy speech, Olmert also said Israel would also pull out of the West Bank and uproot settlements under a final peace deal.
“I hold out my hand in peace to our Palestinian neighbors in the hope that it won’t be returned empty,” Olmert said.
“We cannot change the past and we will not be able to bring back the victims on both sides of the borders,” he said. “All that we can do today is stop additional tragedies.” His offer to restart long-stalled peace talks came a day after the two sides began observing a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, ending five months of widespread violence in the coastal area and raising hopes that the truce would lead to new peace efforts.
Despite the cease-fire, Palestinians fired two rockets at Israel yesterday afternoon, causing no injuries, Israeli authorities said.
Olmert’s speech also raised the diplomatic stakes ahead of a visit to the region by US President George W. Bush.
Olmert said that if the Palestinians establish a new, moderate Cabinet committed to carrying out the US-backed road map peace plan and securing the release of a captured Israeli soldier, then he would call for an immediate meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “to have a real, open, honest, serious dialogue.”
Israeli officials denied the possibility of a summit between Abbas and Olmert on the sidelines of Bush’s visit to neighboring Jordan later this week. Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said the sides were discussing when the leaders would meet, but no date had been set.
Palestinian legislator Saeb Erekat, a top aide to Abbas, head of the moderate Fatah party, said the Palestinians were ready to negotiate a final peace deal.
“I believe Mr. Olmert knows he has a partner, and that is President Abbas. He knows that to achieve peace and security for all, we need to shoot for the end game,” Erekat said.
But the Palestinian Cabinet, led by the Hamas group, said it was suspicious of Olmert’s outreach.
“This is a conspiracy. This is a new maneuver. Olmert is speaking about the Palestinian state without giving details about the borders,” said Ghazi Hamad, a government spokesman.
Relations between Israel and the Palestinians, already shaky after more than five years of fighting, further plummeted in January when Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Israel cut off ties with the Hamas-led Cabinet and froze the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to their government in an effort to pressure the group to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
Tensions exploded in June when Hamas-linked fighters captured an Israeli soldier in a crossborder raid, sparking a wide scale Israeli offensive in Gaza that killed more than 300 Palestinians, scores of them civilians. Five Israelis have also been killed in the violence.
Despite the offensive, Palestinian fighters insisted they would not release Cpl. Gilad Shalit unless Israel freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Israel publicly rejected the demand, leaving the two sides in a violent stalemate.
But Olmert’s agreement late Saturday with Abbas to implement a cease-fire in Gaza, stirred hopes that further deals could follow.
Those hopes clouded yesterday when Israeli troops shot and killed a fighter affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees in a raid in the West Bank town of Qabatiya. The troops also killed a woman who tried to run off with the dead man’s weapon, the army said.
The killings raised concerns of a violent response from Gaza.
“We warn the world that if the Zionist aggression in the West Bank doesn’t stop, this truce will collapse,” said Abu Mujahed, the spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a group responsible for many of the rocket attacks on Israel.
— With input from agencies
