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Wed, March 23, 2011 | The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

Abbas Prepared to Exchange Land for Peace with Israel

On March 19 Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas was the guest of the Israeli Channel 2 show “Meet the Press.” The main points of the interview were the following (according to Israel Channel 2 TV, March 19, 2011):

— The peace process and an agreement with Israel:

Mahmoud Abbas said that he had no objection to meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu “anywhere.” He said the negotiations would resume when Prime Minister Netanyahu had made it clear that he was willing to accept the 1967 borders as a basis for negotiations and to freeze the building in the settlements for a number of months. He said that the negotiations would lead to the end of the conflict and cancel the historical territorial claims of both sides.

He said that he was prepared for an exchange of territories, and that if Netanyahu made a proposal similar to the one suggested by [former Israeli prime minister] Ehud Olmert he would accept it.

He emphasized that he would not accept a state “with temporary borders” as the negotiations’ final goal, but was ready to accept a final status arrangement implemented in stages, one of which would be a state with temporary borders.

He said that although many countries had already recognized a Palestinian state, he did not want to declare an independent state “on paper,” and preferred a peace agreement with Israel.

— Internal Palestinian reconciliation:

Mahmoud Abbas said that the two parts of the Palestinian people, those in the West Bank and those in the Gaza Strip, had to be united. He claimed that the schism within the Palestinian people was an obstacle to peace and served Israel as an excuse not to go forward with the negotiations.

He expressed confidence that Hamas would not win elections in the West Bank, but nevertheless said that elections would be held and the Palestinians would choose whom they wanted, even if it were Hamas. He said the Palestinians were peace-loving and that even if Hamas should win the elections, Israel had nothing to fear.

He said that Hamas had expressed readiness to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and was currently preventing rockets from being fired from the Gaza Strip. He added that he hoped that the Palestinian Authority would be able to turn Hamas into a “peace movement.”

— The murder in Itamar:

Mahmoud Abbas again denounced the murder of the Fogel family in the village of Itamar. He claimed he denounced it as soon as he heard about it. He emphasized that the deed was an exception to Palestinian tradition and morality. He claimed that the senior figures of the Palestinian Authority doubted whether the murderer was a Palestinian, because “it is unthinkable that a Palestinian aware of his own actions could kill a three month-old baby.”