Israel should withdraw from nearly all territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war in return for peace with the Palestinians and Syria, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted today as telling a newspaper.
Mr Olmert, in a caretaker role since quitting on September 21st, said he was breaking new ground in calling for a broad pullback from the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians hope to establish a state, and in the annexed Golan Heights, which Syria wants back.
"[I am saying] what no previous Israeli leader has ever said: we should withdraw from almost all of the territories, including in East Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights," Mr Olmert, who resigned over corruption allegations, told Yedioth Ahronoth.
The Israeli daily called it a "legacy interview", published on the eve of the Jewish new year. It noted Mr Olmert went further in making offers for peace than he ever did publicly when he was in active office, with greater power to see them carried out.
According to Western and Palestinian officials, Mr Olmert has proposed in peace talks with the Palestinians an Israeli withdrawal from some 93 per cent of the occupied West Bank, plus all of the Gaza Strip, from which Israel pulled out in 2005.
The negotiations, which Mr Olmert has vowed to continue until he leaves office when a new government is formed, have shown few signs of progress and both sides acknowledge chances are slim of meeting Washington's target of a deal by the end of the year.
Mr Olmert said repeatedly that Israel intends to keep major Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
A peace agreement, Mr Olmert has said, would mean Israel would have to compensate the Palestinians for the land it hopes to retain by "close to a 1-to-1 ratio".
In exchange for the settlement enclaves, Mr Olmert has proposed about a 5 pe rcent land swap giving the Palestinians a desert territory adjacent to the Gaza Strip, as well as land on which to build a transit corridor between Gaza and the West Bank.
He has so far put off negotiations on sharing Jerusalem and ruled out a so-called "right of return" for Palestinian refugees, a central Palestinian demand. On both issues, there is strong opposition in Israel to significant concessions.
Reuters