A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

August 7 , 2007 Perers Is Said to Float Peace Proposal

The Israeli news today was dominated by a story in the daily newspaper Ha'aretz about the fact President Peres has presented Prime Minister Olmert with a peace proposal that is more or less equal to the proposals put forward at Taba after the failure of Camp David. Peres' plan is said to include exchanging territory with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank so the largest settlement blocs would remain part of Israel. Part of the proposal includes exchanging some of the areas with large Arab population with the new Palestinian state. Israeli Arab leaders immediately denounced the plan today, saying no one has the right to transfer them (or their lands) to the Palestinian state. One commentator said that Israel should mark the date of August 7th- this is the date that Olmert began to be sorry that he supported Peres for the presidency. The talk of peace negotiations certainly serves Olmert's political interests and probably Israel's diplomatic interest as well. So, even though the President is not supposed to be involved in these issues, Peres is probably not doing too much harm.


The other news of the day however, the forcible removal of the settlers from their homes in the Hebron market, underscored how difficult it would be to implement any agreement that includes any withdrawal from any West Bank settlements. The removals went relatively smoothly, but it took 3,000 police and soldiers to remove three families.