NY Times: Sharon Deputy Urges Major Unilateral Concession if Talks Fail

[La_Serpiente]

Sharon Deputy Urges Major Unilateral Concession if Talks Fail

JERUSALEM, Dec. 16 — Israel's deputy prime minister said Tuesday that Israel should prepare to make concessions with a "grand, one-sided move" if peace talks with the Palestinians should fail.

The minister, Ehud Olmert, has stirred fierce debate among Israelis and Palestinians with his recent pronouncements about the possibility of sweeping unilateral Israeli actions that would seek to impose a Mideast accord if no peace pact is reached.

Mr. Olmert is considered a hawk. Yet most right-wing Israelis reject his calls for political and territorial concessions amid the Mideast violence.

Palestinians say they oppose Israeli moves that are not a product of negotiations between the sides.

Still, Mr. Olmert is regarded as a close ally of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and his comments are generally seen as preparing the ground for moves that Mr. Sharon is contemplating. "My preferred option is a political settlement, but we cannot wait for it indefinitely," Mr. Olmert said at a national security conference in Herzliya, outside Tel Aviv.

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Sharon Deputy Urges Major Unilateral Concession if Talks Fail

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[Resistance]

1. Israel's entire history

has been one grand one-sided move -- is this a threat to do something different?