According to Barak Ravid, writing in the Hebrew web edition of Ha’aretz today, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is close to concluding a blockbuster deal between the U.S., Israel and the Palestinian Authority. According to Ravid, the agreement would include a limited Israeli settlement freeze, release of Palestinian prisoners, the release of the spy Jonathan Pollard, and the extension of the Kerry peace negotiations for one year. During that year the Palestinians would not any make claims against Israel before the United Nations.
It is being reported that the Israelis have signed on and Kerry is awaiting the agreement from the Palestinian side.
Below is my translation of what Ravid claims are five articles of the deal. Of note is the extremely ambiguous language which is employed in stating Israeli obligations of ceasing settlement construction. It is also important to note that English is the official language of all treaties between Israelis and Palestinians, so that Ravid translated the leaked treaty to Hebrew and then I translated his translation back to English.
- The Palestinians will agree to extend the negotiations for a year, until 2015, and will refrain during this period from taking any unilateral actions at the United Nations.
- The United States will free the spy Jonathan Pollard before Passover.
- Israel will initiate a fourth round of prisoner releases that will include 14 Israeli Arabs [Palestinian citizens of Israel]
- Israel will release 400 Palestinian prisoners “who have no blood on their hands,” that only have a few months remaining on their sentences. These prisoners to be released will be determined by Israel and will include women and minors.
- Israel will freeze most of the construction, except in East Jerusalem, and use restraint [rein in] in publishing building tenders and marketing land to contractors.
Check out the comments at the New York Times site. Wow. The emperor has no clothes. Americans understand what a sham the peace process is.
Diogenes:
Releasing Pollard would not only be unjust, it would be a mistake. It would encourage the view that Jews receive favored treatment by the government. Otherwise, Aldrich Ames and other people convicted of betraying the United States should be released. Jonathan Pollard was sentenced to life in prison.
Kenan Porobic:
This national security policy makes as much sense as if I expected to go to a dealership to get a new a car and have them pay for a car..
Frozy:
This is an outrage. What has the Pollard case got to do with the Near East peace talks? If Israel is holding these peace talks as hostage against the US, the US should cut off all help to Isreal and let them manage on their own.
Arnand:
I’m beginning to think Kerry is gullible and shouldn’t speak in public. The US releases Pollard and gets nothing in return. Extending negotiations is asinine since they can be extended to eternity and nothing will change. Israel will continue to build settlements and imprison Palestinians like Bitcoins to be used in the future.
r:
A better deal:
Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni and the rest of the Israeli war criminals and hoodlums are locked up along with Pollard and the Palestinians are granted a state.
AH2:
Looks like Obama and Kerry get duped again into an agreement that will change absolutely nothing. What happened to the final agreement Kerry promised. It’s never going to happen. This is a PR stunt.
And that’s just the start.
“4.Israel will release 400 Palestinian prisoners “who have no blood on their hands,” that only have a few months remaining on their sentences.”
Big deal.
I wonder how the US military feels about Pollard.
Seymour Hersh gave him 2 barrels in 2001 – why would anything have changed in the meantime ?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/576453/posts
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2011/04/former-head-british-spook-says-israeli-intelligence-couldnt-be-trusted.html/comment-page-1#comment-302158
The Palestinians have nothing to lose by going to the UN at this stage.
Israel’s kabuki game is up.
If US intel and Military didn’t resent Israel and our Zio-friendly Politicos enough yet, freeing the Israeli spy should pretty much finish pinning the tail on that donkey.
It’s obviously waaay past time that somebody leaked the contents of the secret memo on Pollard. Let the American people know exactly why he got as long as he did.
Settlement freeze? Israel will probably just evict EJ Palestinians and give their homes to settlers, then cry when they’re called out for it….
If Abbas goes for this he’s a twat….
Israel apparently wants a pardon for Pollard (like Charles Winters, Hank Greenspun, Al Schwimmer) so that it can claim “no harm.”
It is not surprising that no mainstream media has picked up the recent statements of M.E. “Spike” Bowman, the counter intel guy who wrote SecDef Weinberger’s memorandum in aid of sentencing that got Pollard life.
On March 7, Bowman characterized Pollard in the “top four” rank of spies against the U.S. in terms of total damage.
http://natsummit.org/transcripts/spike_bowman.htm