Last week, Shaul Mofaz, the new leader of Israel’s largest political party, Kadima, told The New York Times that Israel has bigger fish to fry than Iran’s nuclear program — namely, solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be a higher priority.
Two and a half years ago, I sat down with Mofaz for a one-on-one interview at a Manhattan hotel to hear about his vision for Palestinian statehood. Here are the details:
The first step is the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state with temporary borders on 60 percent of the territory in the West Bank. Then, over the course of the next four to six years, the two sides would negotiate the final-status issues, including permanent borders. The final deal would be put to national referendums in Israel and Palestine.
Under his plan, not a single Israeli settlement would be uprooted during the course of final-status negotiations, and both Gaza and the West Bank would be united under a moderate Palestinian government. In the end, Jerusalem would remain united under Israeli sovereignty, the large Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank would be annexed to Israel, and the Palestinian state would be completely demilitarized.
Full story here.
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