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'Saving Kerry’s peace plan' - A response letter
A shorter road to a two-state solution
In “Saving Kerry’s peace plan” (Opinion, Nov. 11), Yossi Beilin correctly points out that the current round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations “is at grave risk of failure” and identifies the “challenge of evacuating settlers” from the West Bank as a key sticking point.
I would love to see a negotiated agreement finalized. But after more than a few futile rounds in the last two decades, Israel needs to take a different approach — one that doesn’t depend exclusively on Palestinian acceptance nor on direct negotiations only.
According to a 2012 poll, nearly 30 percent of the 100,000 West Bank settlers who live outside of the main settlement blocs would voluntarily accept compensation and relocate within the pre-1967 border or to the main settlement blocs. This relocation process should be carried out within a national-scale planning, including the enactment of a voluntary evacuation, compensation and absorption law for those living outside the settlement blocs. The future of those settlers who remain east of the security fence will be determined when an Israeli-Palestinian agreement is signed.
Such independent steps will improve the prospects for achieving a two-state solution, which is the only way to resolve our conflict with the Palestinians and secure Israel’s future as the democratic nation state for the Jewish people.
Gilead Sher, Tel Aviv
The writer is a former Israeli co-chief negotiator with the Palestinians and co-chairman of Blue White Future.
For the Respond Letter, as published on The New York Times - Click here
I would love to see a negotiated agreement finalized. But after more than a few futile rounds in the last two decades, Israel needs to take a different approach — one that doesn’t depend exclusively on Palestinian acceptance nor on direct negotiations only.
According to a 2012 poll, nearly 30 percent of the 100,000 West Bank settlers who live outside of the main settlement blocs would voluntarily accept compensation and relocate within the pre-1967 border or to the main settlement blocs. This relocation process should be carried out within a national-scale planning, including the enactment of a voluntary evacuation, compensation and absorption law for those living outside the settlement blocs. The future of those settlers who remain east of the security fence will be determined when an Israeli-Palestinian agreement is signed.
Such independent steps will improve the prospects for achieving a two-state solution, which is the only way to resolve our conflict with the Palestinians and secure Israel’s future as the democratic nation state for the Jewish people.
Gilead Sher, Tel Aviv
The writer is a former Israeli co-chief negotiator with the Palestinians and co-chairman of Blue White Future.
For the Respond Letter, as published on The New York Times - Click here