I’ve just amended my post at Tikkun Daily under this title. What I originally took to be WikiLeaks were actually internal Palestinian documents leaked to Al Jazeera by dissident Palestinians to embarrass Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO leadership who attempted (apparently in good faith) to negotiate a two-state solution with the Kadima-led Israeli government of Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni. What the Guardian and Al Jazeera are blasting as a betrayal of Palestinian rights was precisely the kind of deal that could work for both parties in bringing this conflict to an end.
These documents only report one side of the story, providing a perspective based on Palestinian sources alone. It should be understood that Olmert did offer proposals that were not far off from the Palestinian concessions this leak purportedly discloses. None other than Daniel Levy sees Olmert as having sincerely sought peace. The process was sadly cut short by Olmert’s legal and political difficulties, not to mention the toxic fallout from Israel’s Gaza war.
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