Four hours of high-level security negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials ended last night without an agreement. The leaders met at the home of US ambassador Daniel Kurtzer to discuss Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer’s “Gaza first” plan. The proposal calls for the IDF to withdraw from formerly PLO-controlled areas one at a time, and to transfer security responsibilities to the PA. The PA officials insist, however, on an immediate pullback not only from Gaza, but from Bethlehem as well. Israel says it needs to see that terrorism can be controlled in Gaza before it begins withdrawing its forces from other areas. The parties agreed to meet again next week.
MK Yuval Shteinitz (Likud) told Arutz-7 that Ben-Eliezer's plan sounds like a bad joke:
"It's unbelievable that eight years after the 'Gaza and Jericho first' mistakes of Oslo, another similar plan could be conceived... After we have been burned so badly with the first Oslo agreements, I don't see how we can [do such a thing again]... It is amazing that in the paper today, you see on one page that we are trying to reach an agreement with the PA, and on the other page you see [US Defense Secretary] Rumsfeld saying that there is no point in trying to negotiate with them after they violated so many agreements in the past."
MK Yuval Shteinitz (Likud) told Arutz-7 that Ben-Eliezer's plan sounds like a bad joke:
"It's unbelievable that eight years after the 'Gaza and Jericho first' mistakes of Oslo, another similar plan could be conceived... After we have been burned so badly with the first Oslo agreements, I don't see how we can [do such a thing again]... It is amazing that in the paper today, you see on one page that we are trying to reach an agreement with the PA, and on the other page you see [US Defense Secretary] Rumsfeld saying that there is no point in trying to negotiate with them after they violated so many agreements in the past."