MIDDLE EAST: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offers prisoner release for captured soldier, Hamas says offer 'not enough'

Israel will be prepared to release many jailed Palestinians, including long-serving prisoners, in return for a soldier militants seized last June, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday (November 27). In a major policy speech, Olmert said he was reaching out to the Palestinians for peace -- offering a series of humanitarian and economic incentives if violence against Israel ceased. He also repeated a willingness to evacuate, for "real peace", some of the settlements Israel has built in the occupied West Bank. Olmert did not give details nor mention a unilateral "realignment plan" shelved after the recent Lebanon war. "With Gilad Shalit's release and his return safe and sound to his family, the Israeli government will be willing to release many Palestinian prisoners, even those who have been sentenced to lengthy terms," Olmert said. It was the first time that Olmert had specially spoken of exchanging prisoners for Shalit, whose capture in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants triggered an Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip. The governing Hamas movement gave a lukewarm response, saying Olmert's offer "was not enough", alluding to its demand for a simultaneous swap of more than 1,000 prisoners for Shalit. The Islamist militant group called Olmert's proposal a retreat. Olmert was speaking a day after a truce took hold in Gaza, designed to both halt the offensive and end rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian militants. The ceasefire is seen as a step to reviving peace talks that collapsed in 2000 before the start of a Palestinian uprising. But Olmert listed a string of conditions for peace talks with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He said Palestinians must first form a unity government that meets Western demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace accords, and that Shalit has to be freed. Peace hopes have dimmed since the Hamas came to power in March. It is engaged in so far unsuccessful talks with Abbas on a coalition of technocrats that Palestinians hope can lead to an easing of Western sanctions. "In the framework of the dialogue and in accordance to the road map, you could form an independent viable Palestinian state with territorial continuity in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), a country that would enjoy full sovereignty with defined borders. In this framework the borders of the state of Israel will be charted according to (U.S. President George W.) Bush's letter to (Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon on July 14 2004. These borders will be different from the territories that are currently under Israel's control," Olmert said. He said if Palestinian violence against Israel stopped, the government would be ready to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians and free up funds that were frozen when Hamas took office. Doubts over how long the Gaza truce might last deepened on Monday when Israeli troops killed a militant commander and a 50-year-old woman during an exchange of fire in the occupied West Bank. The ceasefire does not extend to the West Bank. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh said in response the ceasefire should include the West Bank. "We said that the Israeli occupation must stop operations and attacks on the Palestinian people in every place in which our Palestinian people exist, because these are one people and this is one land. It is not right to continue with the assassination policy in the West Bank so we can make sure the environment (positive negotiations) which we have offered can continue on the Palestinian side," Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza. Haniyeh also said Israel's peace offerings are not concessions but rather the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. "The issue of the prisoners, this is a natural right for our prisoners to be released from these prisons, 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, and regarding the 'painful concession' we do not speak about pain or anything as such, there are rights for the Palestinian people the least of which is the formation of an independent state on the borders of 1967 and for Jerusalem to be its capital as well as the return of refugees," said Haniyeh. Olmert spoke of withdrawal from a number of settlements built in the West Bank as a 'huge hardship' for Israel that it will be willing to stand by in exchange for 'real peace.' Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered a series of humanitarian and economic incentives if violence against Israel ceased. He conditioned any resumption of peace talks on the soldier's release and acceptance by any future Palestinian unity government of a international demands to renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept existing interim peace accords. Olmert said he would meet Abbas for a "serious dialogue" once such a unity government, that accepted Western terms, was in place and Shalit was released. Olmert was speaking a day after a truce took hold in Gaza, designed to both halt the offensive and end rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian militants. The ceasefire is seen as a step to reviving peace talks that collapsed in 2000 before the start of a Palestinian uprising. Nabil Abu Rdainah, an Abbas adviser, called for a return to peace negotiations on establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. "What we are looking for is seeing this issue resolved immediately, the release of all the prisoners Palestinians and Israelis. This is the starting point especially after the truce which was agreed upon yesterday. We have to build on these steps and we hope that this issue should be solved very soon," Abu Rdainah told reporters in Gaza. Olmert was referring to an internationally-backed peace plan charting reciprocal, confidence-building steps and negotiations leading to the creation of a Palestinian state next to a secure Israel Within hours of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's major policy speech on Monday (November 27), Palestinian militants in Gaza fired rockets into the Israeli border town of Sderot, despite a ceasefire declared on Sunday. There were no reports of casualties.

ITN Source | November 28, 2006

Tags:. .deepened. .hardship. .viable. .unsuccessful. .crossborder