Martin Indyk, a former US Ambassador to Israel, justifies the PA’s refusal to accept Ehud Olmert’s offer of 97% of Judea and Samaria. Speaking in a panel discussion President Shimon Peres’s “Facing Tomorrow” Conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, Indyk was asked if he felt the Arabs had missed an opportunity when they rejected Olmert's generous peace offer.
Indyk explained away the PA’s intransigence by saying, "The prime minister [Ehud Olmert] was about to have an indictment filed against him, and the foreign minister herself [Tzipi Livni] specifically told both the Americans and the Palestinians: Don't you dare sign the agreement.”
Indyk apparently ignored the explanation given by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas himself for his rejection. Abbas said that what Olmert had offered, including Jerusalem and 95-98% of Judea and Samaria, was simply “not enough,” reports correspondent Haggai Huberman.
As recently as three months ago, Abbas described his vision of peace as follows: “…a return to our lands in all areas in the 1967 borders. We will not relinquish a single inch of the West Bank, whose area is over 6.2 thousand sq km. It is inconceivable to allow any country to be deprived of its territorial contiguity and its water sources… In general, we do not agree to changing the 1967 borders.”
Furthermore, chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat told the Jordanian daily Al-Dustour this past June that though Olmert had offered to give the PA territory equal in size to 100% of the land occupied in 1967 by means of a land swap, the PA had no reason to agree. Erekat said the PA would not agree to a land swap before Israel recognized the Palestinians' right to sovereignty over all the territory occupied in 1967 – and added that there had been a steady erosion in Israel's position over the years, and therefore there was no reason to rush into accepting the Israeli proposals.
Indyk’s remarks were rejected on another front by former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Contacted by Army Radio this morning about Indyk’s accusation, she said, “I had no reason to work behind Olmert’s back because I said publicly that I rejected his plan.”
She also said that she was not involved in the Olmert-Abbas contacts, and that she objected to the settling of thousands of Arab refugees in Israel and to the loss of Israeli control over Jerusalem.
Indyk served as US Ambassador to Israel in the mid-90’s and the early 2000’s, but had no official role during the recent Olmert-Abbas talks.