Secret Talks Ended when Palestinians Rejected Netanyahu’s Offer – Minister

When the daily Haaretz broke the story of secret talks between Israel and the Palestinians aimed at restoring security control in the West Bank’s “Area A” to the Palestinian security services, among those surprised were members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s security cabinet – the subset of the full government that is supposed to stay informed on such matters. According to one minister, Immigration Absorption Minister Zeev Elkin, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party speaking on Israel Radio, the reason the prime minister gave for failing to brief the group was that the plan had been rejected by the Palestinians. But Elkin’s explanation did nothing to explain why the security cabinet was kept in the dark before the plan was rejected. The proposal had been for the cities of Ramallah and Jericho to revert to Palestinian security control and additional cities added as warranted. According to the designation set up by the 1993 Oslo Accords, “Area A” is to have been under Palestinian security and administrative control, but claiming the escalating violence prevented it, the Israeli army has operated in “Area A” virtually at will. The Palestinians demand an immediate end to Israel’s presence in all areas of the West Bank immediately.