'Livni would have ceded more land than Barak'

Livni would have ceded m

By HERB KEINON
Kadima leader Tzipi Livni agreed to cede to the Palestinians some 92.7 percent of the West Bank during negotiations she held as foreign minister with Palestinian Authority negotiator Ahmed Qurei in 2008, Channel 10 reported Tuesday night. According to a report on the negotiations Livni conducted from the end of 2007 to the end of 2008, Livni would also have given the Palestinians some 3% of land in various parts of Israel as compensation for the 7.3% of Judea and Samaria that Israel would retain. In her plan, the Jordan Valley would be given up, but Ariel would remain part of Israel, connected to the Green Line by a thin corridor. While her offer was more generous than what former prime minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians at Camp David in 2000, it fell short of what then-prime minister Ehud Olmert offered PA President Mahmoud Abbas in talks he held even as Livni was negotiating with Qurei. Under Olmert's plan, the Palestinians would receive 94.5% of the territory. According to the Channel 10 report, the Palestinians put forth a proposal of their own, under which they would receive 98.1% of the territory. Under their plan, Israel would retain parts of Gush Etzion, as well as the settlements of Elkana, Oranit and Sha'arei Tikva. Inside Jerusalem, they agreed that Israel would retain control of the Armon Hanatziv, French Hill, Ramot Eshkol, Ramot Shlomo, Pisgat Ze'ev, Neveh Ya'acov, Ma'alot Dafna and Gilo neighborhoods. Ma'aleh Adumim, under the PA plan, would become part of the new Palestinian state. In a proposal put forward by the US, however, Israel would retain Ma'aleh Adumim, and the Palestinians would get Ariel. According to this plan, the residents of the settlements could keep living in them as long as they accepted the authority of the future Palestinian government. Livni issued a statement saying that the negotiations had been halted "after real progress was made" because new elections had been called in Israel. The statement said she had not given the Palestinians any maps or offers delineating where land swaps would take place inside Israel.