Olmert offers land, prisoners for peace, as Qassam attacks continue
By Israel Insider staff and partners  November 27, 2006
 
 
Two Qassam rockets fired from north Gaza Monday afternoon landed in open areas in the western Negev region with no injuries or damage were reported, marking the second time rockets were fired into Israel since the ceasefire took effect at 6 a.m. Sunday.

In light of the cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered wide-ranging peace concessions to Palestinians on Monday if they turned away from violence, saying they would be able to achieve an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in real peace talks with Israel.

Apparently, however, the cease-fire is off to a shaky start.

A Palestinian source told Ynet that the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a small armed faction, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack is believed to be in retaliation for Israel's killing of a PRC official near Jenin on Monday. But the group's spokesperson, Abu Abir, refused to confirm the report and accused Israel of breaking the ceasefire.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said on Monday that terror groups should understand that the ceasefire agreement reached with Israel is no timeout, warning that Israel is ready to defend itself should attacks against its citizens and military resume.

"Terror groups should understand: we are not in timeout. We remain deployed for possible responses under different scenarios. I would like to stress that in addition to the ceasefire I have no intention of resting on my laurels, but to protect our citizens," he said during the Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

The Islamic Jihad called Monday on Palestinian factions to reject a ceasefire with Israel that went into effect on Sunday morning.

Sheikh Mohammad Saadi, the head of the Islamic Jihad in Jenin, says the ceasefire should be abolished because it doesn't apply to the West Bank and therefore allows Israel to continue its military operations against armed groups there. He also warned of a possible suicide attack on Israel.

On Sunday, Israel agreed to halt its military incursions in Gaza in return for commitments by armed groups in the Gaza Strip to stop rocket attacks against Israeli communities in the western Negev.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered wide-ranging peace concessions to Palestinians on Monday if they turned away from violence, saying they would be able to achieve an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in real peace talks with Israel.

In some of his most conciliatory remarks since winning election in March, Olmert directly addressed the Palestinians, promising to reduce checkpoints, release frozen funds and free prisoners in exchange for a serious Palestinian push for peace.

"I hold out my hand in peace to our Palestinian neighbors in the hope that it won't be returned empty," Olmert said.

His offer to restart long-stalled peace talks came a day after the two sides implemented a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, ending five months of widespread violence there and raising hopes that the agreement would lead to new peace efforts. It also raised the diplomatic stakes ahead of a visit to the region by U.S. President George W. Bush.

Relations between Israel and the Palestinians, already low after more than five years of fighting, further plummeted in January when the militant Hamas group won Palestinian parliamentary elections.

Israel cut off ties with the Hamas-led Cabinet and froze the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian government in an effort to pressure Hamas to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

Tensions exploded in June when Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, sparking a widescale Israeli offensive in Gaza that killed more than 300 Palestinians, scores of them civilians. The violence also killed five Israelis.

Despite the offensive, Palestinian militants had insisted they would not release Cpl. Gilad Shalit unless Israel freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Israel publicly rejected the demand, leaving the two sides in a violent stalemate.

But in recent days, there have been signs of progress. Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to a cease-fire in Gaza that took effect Sunday morning, stirring hopes that further agreements could follow.

The cease-fire deal, which appeared to be holding Monday after getting off to a shaky start, now seems to be threatened again. The truce took effect at 6 a.m. Sunday, but Palestinian militants continued launching rockets into Israel for at least four hours afterward, and have just recently fired more rockets into the Western Negev.

Olmert's speech Monday at a ceremony commemorating the death of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, was an effort to entice the Palestinians to return to peace talks, with the Israeli leader promising an immediate improvement in their lives.

"The uncompromising extremism of your terror organizations ... haven't brought you closer to achieving the goal that I'm convinced many of you share -- to establish a Palestinian state," he said.

Olmert also 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 have in our hands to do today is to stop additional tragedies."

He said that if the Palestinians establish a new government committed to carrying out the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan and securing Shalit's release, then he would call for an immediate meeting with Abbas "to have a real, open, honest, serious dialogue between us."

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians were ready to negotiate a final peace deal.

"I believe Mr. Olmert knows he has a partner, and that is President Abbas. He knows that to achieve peace and security for all, we need to shoot for the end game," Erekat said.

As a first step, Erekat said, the two sides need to sustain the fragile cease-fire along the Israel-Gaza border and also extend it to the West Bank. "That will open the key to a political horizon," he said.

In what was billed in advance as a major policy speech, Olmert said that Palestinians stood at a "historic crossroads" and could choose to continue on the path of violence or peace.

Olmert said that Israel was willing to make far-reaching concessions if they chose peace.

"We, the state of Israel, will agree to the evacuation of many territories and the settlements that we built there. This is extremely difficult for us, like the splitting of the Red Sea. We will do it for real peace," he said.

Olmert also said that Israel planned to release "many Palestinian prisoners," including those serving long sentences, as a trust-building measure after Palestinian militants freed Shalit alive and healthy.

Israel will also ease the checkpoints across the West Bank, improve the border terminals in Gaza, release the frozen money to the Palestinians and help develop a plan to rehabilitate their crippled economy

In exchange, Olmert said Palestinians would have to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to live in peace and security and give up their demands to allow refugees from the 1948 Mideast War to return to their homes in what is now Israel.

AP and Ynet writer Shmulik Hadad continuted to this report.