JPOST, A group of leftist leaders travelled to Jordan on Thursday evening to sign a peace agreement they have been negotiating with Palestinians, YNet reported. Among them are Yossi Beilin, Avram Burg and Amram Mitzna. The group is expected to sign the agreement on Saturday with Palestinian interlocutors, among them Yasser Abed Rabbo.
Labor Party sources told The Jerusalem Post the two prime drivers in the effort are Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo.
In late 2000, near the end of former US President Bill Clinton's second term, Israeli and Palestinian officials meeting in Taba, Egypt, came up with an outline of an agreement that roughly called for Israel to cede some 95 percent of the territories, for Arab control of east Jerusalem, and for the right of refugees to return to a new Palestinian state, but not to pre-1967 Israel.
In a possible attempt to blunt the impact of the Ynet news report, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last night – before its publication – sharply criticized the Labor party and Israeli leftists for talking with Palestinian officials.
“There is a cynical political attempt by Labor and the Left to topple the government at a time when it is fighting terror,” Sharon said. “This must be taken seriously. They did it in a time of war before, and now, too, they are cooperating with the Palestinians in a time of war.”
Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres said, in response, that Sharon was interested in unity only through the last election, and that he can speak with whomever he wants, wherever and whenever he wants.
(Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.)
