UN-Truth

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported today that Ehud Olmert’s staff are trying to get a hold of a copy of a 1995 peace proposal signed by Mahmoud Abbas (now the Palestinian President) and Israeli-left politicial Yossi Beilin, a former cabinet minister.

Aluf Benn is reporting that “Haaretz learned Tuesday that the Prime Minister’s Office requested a copy of a 1995 paper formulated during secret meetings between Yossi Beilin and Mahmoud Abbas. The document addressed a possible framework for permanent settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Officials asked Beilin for a copy, possibly because Olmert and his aides want to learn about the issues on which Abbas expressed agreement in the past and make use of that knowledge in the current effort. The Abbas-Beilin document resulted from secret talks between Beilin, who was deputy Foreign Minister at the time, and Abbas, who was Yasser Arafat’s deputy at the PLO. The talks between the two were held in parallel with official negotiations on an interim agreement, known as Oslo B. These talks concluded four days prior to the murder of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. The Abbas-Beilin document was the first effort by officials from the two sides to reach a framework for a lasting peace agreement. Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who succeeded the assassinated Rabin, rejected Beilin’s proposal to use the document as a springboard to a conclusion on the settlement issue. The document was not signed – and Abbas denied its existence until several years later when he told a senior American official of his support for the paper…”

Read the Haaretz report here.

Why is everyone so eager to come to agreement with a man who doesn’t show the courage of his convictions, and who can’t be honest and straightforward — even about his secret peace deals?

Filed under: Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet