Secret Plan for Palestinian State Reported

At the start of an already heated national election campaign, an Israeli newspaper Thursday poured fuel on the political fire, reporting that a government minister and Palestinian officials have secretly drafted a proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which they call for a Palestinian state.

The revelation came as the opposition Likud Party this week kicked off its campaign against the ruling Labor Party, portraying Prime Minister Shimon Peres as untrustworthy and ready to give away the store to Palestinians behind the backs of Israelis.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord and a close advisor to Peres, tried to minimize the report but admitted that he had met several times with Palestine Liberation Organization official Mahmoud Abbas to discuss a final settlement. He said they were trying to determine the “red lines” each side would bring to the bargaining table.

“I didn’t have the authority to reach some sort of agreement, and we didn’t reach a real agreement,” Beilin said on Israeli Army Radio. “I got a picture that gave me a whole lot more optimism about the possibility of reaching an agreement.”

Haaretz, a respected Tel Aviv daily, reported that the two sides had drafted a proposed settlement including Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state without an army, continued Israeli sovereignty over most of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Palestinian control over the Jordan Valley beginning in 2007.

The two sides apparently did not come to a full agreement on the issue of control over Jerusalem. Israel conquered East Jerusalem in 1967 and claims the undivided city as its capital; the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Beilin and Abbas, known as Abu Maazen, were key figures in the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Oslo that produced the 1993 peace agreement between Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chief Yasser Arafat.

Rabin was slain Nov. 4 by a right-wing Jewish law student opposed to the deal that traded West Bank autonomy for peace. Peres inherited the prime minister’s mantle and is ahead in opinion polls for the May 29 election.

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is challenging Peres, is likely to use Beilin’s admission in the campaign. Netanyahu this week charged that Peres was negotiating secretly over the fate of Jerusalem. His campaign slogan is “Peres will divide Jerusalem.”

According to Haaretz, the Beilin-Abbas proposal involves expanding Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries under Israeli sovereignty but leaves many details unresolved. Beilin has advocated the idea of a municipal umbrella under Israeli control with boroughs under Palestinian administration.

“We cannot ignore the fact that 170,000 Palestinians live in Jerusalem,” a Beilin aide said.

Haaretz said the proposal also calls for large West Bank settlements to remain inside Israel. Jewish settlers in West Bank enclaves that would fall within Palestinian territory would be offered dual Israeli-Palestinian citizenship.

The proposal was presented to Peres and Arafat. Peres declined to comment but was reportedly unhappy with several key points.

In recent weeks, Beilin has publicly advocated that Peres’ Labor Party remove a clause in its platform opposing the creation of a Palestinian state. But on the defensive Thursday night, he said on Israeli television, “We are not establishing a Palestinian state. It is not our job. If you ask for my personal preference, it would be better for the Palestinians and for us that there be a Jordanian and Palestinian confederation.”