A report in Yedioth Aharonoth Friday outlining supposed land concessions offered to the Palestinian Authority by Netanyahu may not have been false, but is "not relevant," Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Saturday.
"This was a document that both sides didn't accept and is not relevant - it is interesting to consider what the purpose of the leak was," Ya'alon stated, speaking at an event in Be'er Sheva. "The leak manipulated the importance of one document out of many that the Americans put on the table in order to mediate between the sides and the basis for an agreement through negotiations."
"Prime Minister Netanyahu understood that we would not return to '67 borders, Jerusalem would remain united, and that there would not be a [Palestinian] Right of Return," he added.
According to the report, in secret talks with the PA, Netanyahu's representative presented a document offering a bevy of concessions, including a return to the 1949 Armistice lines with land swaps on a meter for meter basis, certain recognition of PA aspirations for Jerusalem, a PA hold in the Jordan Valley, a possibility for "Palestinian refugee" return on an individual basis, the evacuation of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and leaving some Jewish residents under PA rule.
Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz blatantly said late Friday that the report was "false" and that the document actually shows an American proposal of all the terms Israel refused to agree to during talks.