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Israeli Analyst Proposes New Mideast Plan: Deal with Jordan, Egypt

[Toronto Star-Canada] Oakland Ross - "I think it is a big illusion that something like (a two-state solution) can happen," Giora Eiland, former head of Israel's National Security Council, told a gathering of diplomats, academics and journalists at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Monday. Eiland advanced a complex arrangement involving three-way land swaps, an enlarged Gaza Strip, and the direct involvement of both Jordan and Egypt in a peace deal that would look very different from any under consideration today. "The maximum a government of Israel can offer to the Palestinians and still survive politically is less, far less, than any proposal that would be accepted by any Palestinian government," Eiland said. Regarding the West Bank, Jordan might consider reclaiming the sovereignty it exerted between 1948 and 1967, in order to head off the likely alternative - an eventual Hamas takeover. Under this arrangement, Palestinians there would be granted autonomy in all areas except foreign affairs and state security, which would be administered by Amman. As for Gaza, he said, the territory is too small and too crowded to be viable. He proposes a series of land swaps, in which Israel would retain 600 km. in the West Bank, where 270,000 Israelis now live. In exchange, Gaza would receive an equivalent tract of land in Egypt's Sinai, and Egypt would gain 600 km. of Israel's Negev, along with the possibility of a land route to Jordan (via a tunnel). All this would likely leave Hamas in control of Gaza, but Eiland said, "I believe Israel and Hamas can find a way to live together."
2008-11-19 01:00:00
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