Land swap on offer?

Israel offered the Palestinians land in the Negev in exchange for West Bank settlement blocs.The idea was part of a draft peace deal that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert presented to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last week, Ha’aretz reported.
Under the proposal, which was leaked to the newspaper, Israel would keep West Bank settlement blocs, turn the West Bank security fence into a border and evacuate settlers east of it. In exchange for what would be, effectively, an annexation of seven per cent of West Bank land, Israel would cede a parcel of the Negev to the Gaza Strip.
The Negev land would be equivalent to 5.5 per cent of the West Bank. The shortfall would be made up for by a road connecting Gaza and the West Bank, allowing for free Palestinian passage between the territories.

Acceptance of refugees?

Israel reportedly has offered to admit 20,000 Palestinian refugees as part of a final peace accord. As part of U.S.-sponsored talks revived last November, the Olmert government proposed that Israel absorb that number of refugees over a decade, Ha’aretz reported. According to the newspaper, the refugees would be admitted on the basis of “humanitarian” criteria, such as whether they had relatives living in Israel. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office denied the report, saying Israel stands firm in its demand that all Palestinian refugees belong in a future Palestinian state rather than in the Jewish state.

U.S. pressuring Israel?

An Israeli government official dismissed claims that the United States was withholding arms from Israel to dissuade the Jewish state from attacking Iran. The official told JTA that U.S.-Israel negotiations over arms sales are taking place independently of any considerations over Iran. “They’re two separate things,” the official said, referring to a Ha’aretz report that the United States was withholding arms from Israel for fear they would be used in an attack on Iran.  Similarly, the officials dismissed Ha’aretz’s speculation that the United States was intensifying its missile defense co-operation with Israel as an incentive against an attack on Iran. “There’s ongoing co-operation between us on missile defence, but there’s nothing new on that,” the official said.

Gaza rockets reach farther

Terrorists in Gaza said a new rocket could reach Ashkelon and Ashdod. The Popular Resistance Committees, the umbrella body for terror groups in Gaza, recently allowed journalists to tour the factories where the Nasser 4 was being manufactured. They said the rocket has a range of about 15 miles, meaning it could reach major population centres along Israel’s southern coast. Israeli spokespeople said the manufacture of the rockets could violate the fragile truce Israel forged with Gaza’s Hamas rulers two months ago. Popular Resistance Committees spokespeople said they don’t expect the truce to last.
– with files from JTA