For the map:
www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/images/printed/P171209/a.0.1712.10.2.9.jpg

Haaretz exclusive: Olmert's plan for peace with the Palestinians
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 15:17 17/12/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1135699.html

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert proposed giving the Palestinians land
from communities bordering the Gaza Strip and from the Judean Desert
nature reserve in exchange for settlement blocs in the West Bank.

According to the map proposed by Olmert, which is being made public here
for the first time, the future border between Israel and the Gaza Strip
would be adjacent to kibbutzim and moshavim such as Be'eri, Kissufim and
Nir Oz, whose fields would be given to the Palestinians.

Olmert also proposed giving land to a future Palestinian state in the
Beit She'an Valley near Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi; in the Judean Hills near
Nataf and Mevo Betar; and in the area of Lachish and of the Yatir
Forest. Together, the areas would have involved the transfer of 327
square kilometers of territory from within the Green Line.

Olmert presented his map to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas in September of last year. Abbas did not respond, and negotiations
ended. In an interview with Haaretz on Tuesday, Abbas said Olmert had
presented several drafts of his map.

The version being disclosed Thursday in Haaretz is based on sources who
received detailed information about Olmert's proposals.

Olmert wanted to annex 6.3 percent of the West Bank to Israel, areas
that are home to 75 percent of the Jewish population of the territories.
His proposal would have also involved evacuation of dozens of
settlements in the Jordan Valley, in the eastern Samarian hills and in
the Hebron region. In return for the annexation to Israel of Ma'aleh
Adumim, the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements, Ariel, Beit Aryeh and
settlements adjacent to Jerusalem, Olmert proposed the transfer of
territory to the Palestinians equivalent to 5.8 percent of the area of
the West Bank as well as a safe-passage route from Hebron to the Gaza
Strip via a highway that would remain part of the sovereign territory of
Israel but where there would be no Israeli presence.

Olmert gave Col. (res.) Danny Tirza, who had been the primary official
involved in planning the route of the security fence, the task of
developing the map that would provide the permanent border between
Israel and the Palestinian state. Olmert's proposed annexation to Israel
of settlement blocs corresponds in large part to the route of the
security fence. In his proposal for a territory swap, Olmert rejected
suggestions previously raised involving the transfer to the Palestinians
of the eastern Lachish hills, deciding instead to establish communities
there for evacuees from the Gaza Strip. He also showed a preference for
giving the Palestinians agricultural land over the transfer of the
Halutza sands near the Egyptian border.

The implementation of the Olmert plan would require the evacuation of
tens of thousands of settlers and the removal of hallmarks of the West
Bank settlement enterprise such as Ofra, Beit El, Elon Moreh and Kiryat
Arba, as well as the Jewish community in Hebron itself.

Olmert reached a verbal understanding with the Bush administration to
the effect that Israel would receive American financial aid to develop
the Negev and Galilee to absorb some of those settlers evacuated from
the West Bank. Other evacuees would have been resettled in new
apartments to be built in the settlement blocs that Israel would annex.

Olmert's office said in response to the disclosure of the plan: "On
September 16, 2008, [Olmert] presented Palestinian Authority President
Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] a map that had been prepared based upon dozens
of conversations that the two held in the course of the intensive
negotiations after the Annapolis summit. The map that was presented was
designed to solve the problem of the borders between Israel and the
future Palestinian state. Giving Abu Mazen the map was conditioned upon
signing a comprehensive and final agreement with the Palestinians so it
would not be used as an 'opening position' in future negotiations the
Palestinians sought to conduct. Ultimately, when Abu Mazen did not give
his consent to a final and complete agreement, the map was not given to
him."

Olmert's office also told Haaretz that "naturally for reasons of
national responsibility, we cannot relate to the content of that map and
the details of the proposal. At the same time, it should be stressed
that in the details contained in your question, there are a not
inconsiderable number of inaccuracies that are not consistent with the
map that was ultimately presented."

Olmert is currently suggesting that his map provide the basis for the
resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians. In his talks with
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and foreign statesmen, the former
prime minister has said the international community must demand a formal
response from Abbas to the Olmert proposal and proceed from there in the
talks. Olmert has not presented the detailed map to Netanyahu.

Shaul Arieli of the Council for Peace and Security, which developed a
map with a final border as part of the Geneva Initiative, said Israel's
capacity to swap territory with a future Palestinian state is more
limited than what Olmert reportedly proposed.