Bush And Sharon Had Secret Deal To Expand West Bank, Claims Olmert

A letter that President Bush personally delivered to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago has emerged as a significant obstacle to the president's efforts to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians during his last year in office.

Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli prime minister, said this week that Bush's letter gave the Jewish state permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush's peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank. In an interview this week, Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed this understanding in a secret agreement reached between Israel and the United States in the spring of 2005, just before Israel withdrew from Gaza.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[superlive]

Apologize, my ass.

What's the use of saying, "I'm sorry we stole your Grandfather's land and won't let you back onto it. No hard feelings, eh? Salaam and all that!"

If they don't give the land back, they should at least pay for it.
I understand Israel has a SPACE PROGRAM! Why not just put that on the back burner for 20 years and cough up some green for the Palestinian-Lebanese-Syrian-Jordanians they've dispossessed.

[PierreLeClerke]

Every single move this cabal has made and will continue to make is to keep the region burning. These actions a designed to give cover for huge weapons sales and record energy prices.
Look Mr. & Mrs Consumer, the Middle East is on fire with violence and terror of all description. The biggest source for crude on the planet is awash with turmoil, looks like crude will be trading at $120 per barrel shortly and as long as you let them America, these criminals will use every resource you have, including the lives of our Soldiers, too keep the fires burning and the weapons contracts flowing.
Ask yourselves America, if you were making TRILLIONS, how far would you go? What would you not do for $$$ and POWER like these guys have achieved?
Now ask yourselves America, what will you do to stop this? So far I'm unimpressed with your answer.

[grn1]

I'm assuming your French, maybe you can help us out on this one. You see this time it is our country that has been hijacked.

[mrpalba]

If true, this story means that the Road Map proposals, summits and photo-ops was all a sham.
Did the other members of the Group of Four know about or participate in this scam?
If Tony Blair was party, he cannot continue as the senior Middle East Negotiator.
WHY THE SILENCE FROM ALL THE MAJOR NEGOTIATORS - ARE THEY ALL GUILTY?

[driven989]

Interesting how quickly this story was removed from the HuffPo front page. This is HUGE news - it should be plastered all over the media. It shows who the true obstacle to peace is. Why is there not more outrage and/or media coverage about this?! Israel has also just been caught spying on America (for the 2nd time) and stealing military secrets - including nuclear secrets. This story was buried on page 11 of my local news paper - and I have not really seen it reported on extensively in the media. WHY?!...

[HatingTheGame]

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Oh yeah, we do.

Bomb em, rape em, pillage and pummel.
Sis boom ba, gooooooo TEAM!!

Woo woo woo woo!

[BobSF94117]

someONE

sigh

[BobSF94117]

Secrets? Lies? Dubya? Quick, some fetch me my smelling salts!

[gladiatorpodolsky]

Why are we subsidizing a religious state with a state religion?

[aaronr2000]

Because we've created a loop hole in living Martin Luther King's dream of justice and equality in America by outsourcing the nightmare of injustice and inequality in Palestine.

No if you'll excuse me I have to go to work so that my tax dollars can bank roll the already rich nation of Israel's welfare subsidies and the illegal and immoral Native American style trail of tears. [sigh]

[dr4Will]

all of bush's lies and corrupt deals will come out in 2009--regardless of who is President!!

[gakabani]

I agree, all will come out and we will be just taken again by the next president.

[Puller58]

Bush probably did the letter as a result of the flap after 9/11. He said that the Palestians deserved a state. Sharon held a press conference where he berated Bush and told him not to sell out Israel to appease the Arabs. He made a WWII reference that seemed to imply that Bush was acting like Neville Chamberlain. Supposedly, Colin Powell and others called Sharon repeatedly and demanded he retract that comparison. After a time, Sharon got the Evangelical Zionist crowd here all riled up about Bush's comments about the Palestinians. That was likely when Bush made the deal with Sharon. Everyone keeps talking about the 1967 borders. Forgetaboutit! "Greater Israel" is the policy that Israel operates under, and that means expansion and not contraction. I don't care what administration is in power, that will not change. Between AIPAC and the ADL, congress has all the courage of a whipped dog. Iran becomes rubble anyday now.

[mari2JJ]

As my mother used to say when I was the naughty one and tried to explain myself, for Bush, the dullard, the explanation is an excuse NOT a reason to make such a disgusting agreement. It will take the Democratic President, no matter who it is, years and years to straighten out the mess Bush has made.

[RS]

Amen to that. In addition to AIPAC and ADL, add JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs) and the AJC (American Jewish Committee) to the Israeli lobby list--these two groups are also VERY POWERFUL lobbies with TENS OF MILLIONS OF $$$$ in their arsenals. I've seen some of their full page ads in several well-known magazines, including US News and The Nation.

[wordvarc]

.
Foolish. Entitled. Secret. Against the advice of allies and experts.
Great potential for destabilizing the mideast.

Sure enough, this has all the sign's of w's foreign policy.
.

[biwee]

I just watched Israeli Ambassador Gillerman on the PBS evening news hour. The spin, evasion, and lies from Gillerman were astounding. The settlements and occupation are THE PROBLEM, a problem that Israel created after 1967. Abandon Israel NOW! Look at it this way.......if Jews were the ones suffering in Gaza, this seige of Gaza would have ended almost as it started. What HYPOCRISY!!

[NicoleAnonymous]

Our country supports lots of other countries where there are human rights violations - are we supposed to stop doing that with all those countries or is it only Israel that bothers you?

[superlive]

Yeah, we should stop. The money we save would fix social security.

[BobSF94117]

We don't support many countries, good or bad, with quite as much cash as we give Israel...

[grn1]

yes and no

[gakabani]

I think you should remember that all bad deeds can come back to hunt us.

[Jtt]

I wonder if they released tis information to scuttle the peace efforts and minor success of Carter. I wonder if there is a "Plan" behind this story's release. The Administration NEVER confirms a story it doesn't want to spread.

[eyesopenwide]

Below is a link to one of Israel's news media. If you are curious to know their views, check it out. For example, I don't think many Israelis are very happy with America for making a big deal out of the latest spying issue. I get the distinct impression that many Israelis think this guy's actions benefited Israel and so Americans should just drop the matter. I've also discovered that criticizing or questioning anything the Israel leadership does or doesn't do is considered to be antisemetic. It's not just about racial slurs or hate speech, it's ANY questions or criticisms of Israel are viewed as an attack on Israel and therefore antisemetic. Apparently, attacking other semetic people doesn't fall within the "antisemetic" definition.

Here's the link:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/LiArt.jhtml?contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0

[NicoleAnonymous]

Actually in Israel they have much more honest discussions about the conflict than we do here. It's mostly American Jews who can't handle it and accuse people of being anti-semitic for critcizing Israel.

But the reality is there aren't many Jews left in the world - during the Holocaust a substantial number were murdered. Almost the entire Jewish population in Europe was either killed or they had to leave and nobody would help so Jews decided to fight for a place they would be safe. Many Jews lost their lives fighting for Israel and wars are horrible but there is always a winner and a loser and Jews won. The problem is that Jews refuse to admit that innocent people suffered because of them and apologize for it and I really believe an apology would help the relationship with the Arabs over there.

[Jtt]

In a way. But their occupying forces practice racial policies as SOP. They are not really allowed to discus it.

[NicoleAnonymous]

This isn't a surprise and when was the last time that Israel asked our permission to do anything? They do anything they want - when Sharon was destroying the occupied territories during the last intifada Bush said something like "could you please show some restraint so civilians aren't being killed" and Sharon said "don't tell me what to do - I'll do anything I want and you know it" and then Bush said "We both know that but Americans might be upset if they find out so I have to ask you to stop - can you pretend that you're listening to me?"

The fact is the settlements have increased every year since the occupation and everyone in Israel knows that. People say if Rabin wasn't assasinated there would have been peace but not many people realize that the number of illegal settlements increases when Rabin was in charge.

"talk peace and create facts on the ground"

That is the motto in Israel and it will never change. And the Arabs keep thinking someone is going to save them eventually - nobody is going to save them.