Posted on 11/27/2006 11:27:05 AM PST by Cinnamon Girl
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that the release of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, held since June by Gaza militants, would lead to the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
"With Gilad Shalit's release and his return safe and sound to his family, the Israeli government will be willing to release many Palestinian prisoners, even those who have been sentenced to lengthy terms," Olmert said.
The prime minister, speaking at the grave of Israel's first premier, David Ben-Gurion, in Sde Boker, said that he was extending his hand in peace to the Palestinians, and that he hoped his offer would not remain unanswered. (Click here for Olmert's full speech) "I hold out my hand in peace to our Palestinian neighbors in the hope that it won't be returned empty," Olmert said.
"We cannot change the past and we will not be able to bring back the victims on both sides of the borders," he said. "All that we can do today is stop additional tragedies."
He called on the Palestinians to renounce violence and give up the insistence on the refugees' right of return to territory within Israel's borders, which has long been a major sticking point in peace negotiations.
"You, the Palestinian people, in the south and east, in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria, stand, these very days, on the threshold of an historic crossroads," he said.
If the Palestinians did decide to choose peace talks, Olmert promised, Israel would quit large swathes of the West Bank, ease checkpoints and release frozen funds to Palestinians.
"We will agree to leave large territories and dismantle settlements that we established," he said. "We will be willing to do this in exchange for real peace."
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
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Anything would have been better than what Olmert is doing.
No deal olmert- you forgot to say pretty please with sugar on top- prepare for more kassam rockets! Cripes- Palestine and Lebanon terrorists are such two faced maggots- but one of htese days the world is goign to un ite and take them out permanent like! http://sacredscoop.com
I cannot decide whether Olmert is terminally stupid or irretrievably evil. Perhaps it is some combination of both.
I cannot wait until the Israeli public finally wakes TFU and gets rid of this putz and his fellow travelers.
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