Posted on 06/21/2002 3:06:30 AM PDT by kattracks
JERUSALEM, Jun 21, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is prepared to accept a Mideast peace plan put forward by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton in December 2000, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Friday.
In an interview at his Ramallah headquarters, Arafat told Haaretz reporter Akiva Eldar that he would take the Clinton plan without changes, Eldar told The Associated Press on Friday. "I am prepared to accept it, absolutely," Eldar quoted Arafat as saying, and he endorsed the points of the plan one by one, Eldar said.
Palestinian officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
Clinton presented the plan after a July summit meeting between Arafat and then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak broke down without an agreement. According to the plan, the Palestinians would set up a state in 95 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza and would gain sovereignty over Arab quarters in Jerusalem and a hotly disputed holy site.
The plan also called on the Palestinians to drastically scale back their demand for all refugees and their descendants from the 1948-49 war that followed Israel's creation, about 4 million people, to have the right to return to their original homes.
After Clinton presented his plan, the Palestinians said they accepted it with "deep reservations," asking for clarifications about all the key points.
Talks continued until late January 2001 but ended without agreement just before a special election, in which Barak was soundly defeated by hawkish Ariel Sharon. At that point, both Israel and the United States said their proposals were off the table.
Now Arafat is willing to sign on to the Clinton plan, Eldar wrote, calling it the first time the Palestinian leader has endorsed it. Arafat said Israel would receive sovereignty over the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall, the last remaining remnant of the compound of the Jewish Temples, Judaism's holiest site.
Also, Arafat said he would be prepared for modifications in the line between Israel and the West Bank and exchanges of territory with Israel, principles the Palestinians have balked at up to now. The official Palestinian demand has been that Israel must pull back to the 1949 cease-fire line, relinquishing all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem and dismantling all Jewish settlements there.
Arafat did not repeat the demand for the right of return of all the refugees and their families to Israel, Eldar said. Instead, he said, a solution must be found for the 200,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, adding that he was calling on European and other world bodies to help. Israel has refused to take in large numbers of refugees. Lebanon says there are 350,000 refugees there.
However, Sharon is prepared to offer much less than his predecessor. Sharon insists that all violence must stop before peace talks resume, and then he would propose a long-term interim agreement, during which the Palestinians would maintain control over the areas they now have. The Palestinians have rejected the idea of another interim accord.
By MARK LAVIE Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
Precisely.
They are utterly irrelevant now... events have passed then by.
I am constantly struck by how shabby and tatty and worn-out most of the "famous people" and "cause celebs" of the 1990's now appear in the new century. They are kind of like the old 286 NEAT chipset motherboard I keep fooling with out in my workshop- you can get the graphics up, a floppy running, a hard drive installed... and DOS. And then, what's the point?
THE LAST 2 YEARS!
But thats OK. In two years time if he's not dead he can accept the Bush plan that he is about to reject.
I think I'll do both.
Fri Jun 21, 8:10 AM ET
By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer
BERLIN (AP) - German leader Adolf Hitler is prepared to accept a European peace plan put forward by then-English Prime Minister Nevill Chamberlain in September 1938, the German newspaper Berliner Zweideutige Redeweise reported Friday.
In an interview at his Buenos Aires headquarters, Hitler told Zweideutige Redeweise reporter Rolph Scheißekopf that he would take the Chamberlain plan without changes, Scheißekopf told The Associated Press on Friday. "I am prepared to accept it, absolutely," Scheißekopf quoted Hitler as saying, and he endorsed the points of the plan one by one, Scheißekopf said.
Sentient officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
Fri Jun 21, 8:10 AM ET
By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer
RICHMOND, VA (AP) - Confederate leader Jefferson Davis is prepared to accept an American peace plan put forward by then-President James Buchanan in Novermber of 1860, the American newspaper The Staunton Vindicator Redeweise reported Friday.
In an interview at his Acapulco headquarters, Davis told Vindicator reporter Colonel Beauregard Franklin Standish Wilkes that he would take the Chamberlain plan without changes, Colonel Wilkes told The Associated Press on Friday. "I am prepared to accept it, absolutely," Col. Wilkes quoted Davis as saying, and he endorsed the points of the plan one by one, Davis said.
Credulous officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
Fri Jun 21, 8:10 AM ET
By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) - United Kingdom King, HRH King George III is prepared to accept an American peace plan put forward by then-Ambassador Benjamin Franklin in Novermber of 1775, the English newspaper The Times of London reported Friday.
In an interview at his London headquarters, HRH told The Times reporter Llewellyn Fitzroy-Smith-Brown-Grosvenor that he would take the Franklin plan without changes, Fitzroy-Smith-Brown-Grosvenor told The Associated Press on Friday. "I am prepared to accept it, absolutely," Fitzroy-Smith-Brown-Grosvenor quoted HRH King George III as saying, and he endorsed the points of the plan one by one, Fitzroy-Smith-Brown-Grosvenor said.
Blind, deaf and dumb officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
Instead, Israel should announce the following policy:
After each new terror attack, the IDF will take and hold a 1K wide strip on the PA side of the Green Line. It may be wider or narrower in specific locations as suits the terrain. Push all the muslims eastward out of this 1K strip into the rest of the PA, let Arafat feed and house them.
Turn the 1K strip into a cordon sanitaire, a free fire zone which is as good as the billion dollar mega wall at preventing infiltration, and has the benefit of being moveable eastward as needed. Any non IDF seen in the 1K strip are to be fired upon immediately.
Bulldoze every structure in the 1K strip and truck away the rubble. Leave not one house for the Palestineans to demand to return to. Tell them "you have no house here, this land is lost to you forever. Thank Hamas, Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad for the loss of your land."
After each new attack, move the cordon sanitaire strip 1K eastward, and permit Israelis to settle the now fallow land previously taken. Eventually the Palestineans will either revolt against their terrorist organizations, or they will find themselves all in refugee camps in a few tiny patches right against the Jordan River.
(The giant billion dollar wall now being built is a mistake: it grants permanent control over the land on the other side to the Palestineans, no matter what future terrorist atrocities they commit. They need to lose "land for terror", and the billion dollar wall cannot move.)
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