News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) In a report conducted by the Haaretz news service, Israel told then-US President Bill Clinton that it wanted a special authority to ensure freedom of worship to Jews and Muslims at Jerusalem holy sites.

On December 23, 2000, Clinton sent a document entitled "The Ideas Raised by President Clinton" to Israel and the PA.  Those ideas were for Israel to annex 4-6 percent of Judea and Samaria for Jewish settlement, with 94-96 percent of the region going to a PA state, providing that Israel allow all PLO Arabs free passage through Israel.  The Temple Mount would go to the PLO, with the Western Wall, the City of David, the Mount of Olives and other holy sites being given to Israel.

In the Israeli response, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak stated that the Jewish population of Judea and Samaria would not fit into Clinton's proposed annexed territory.  He also stated that Israel should be in charge of securing secure safe passage to all worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron, Joseph's Tomb in Shechem, and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem. Barak and Clinton agreed to keep Israel's seven-page response a secret, but Barak sent letters before he left office to Clinton, George W. Bush, Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak saying that Israel was not bound by Clinton's manifesto.