recognition the Palestinian people, we were considered traitors or fools, or both. But two intifadas, the international situation, and our consistent public opinion campaign have done their work.
The combination of these three principles forms the picture of the present consensus: Israel must annex certain areas of the West Bank and relinquish the rest.
This consensus encompasses the major part of the Israeli political landscape, from Ariel Sharon, Binyamin Netanyahu and Uzi Landau to Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin.
The disagreements concern only the extent of the annexation. It reminds one-mutatis muta71dis-of the story attributed to Bernard Shaw, who offered a duchess £1 million if she would sleep with him. When she consented, he reduced his offer to £100, saying: "Now that we have agreed on the principle, all that remains is to settle the price."
Sharon has spoken in the past about annexing 58 percent of the West Bank, comprising the settlement blocs, Greater Jerusalem (with the territory connecting it to Ma'aleh Adumim), the Jordan valley, and the areas between them. He was prepared to leave to the Palestinians their towns and densely populated rural areas. Recently, he has hinted that he might give up the Jordan Valley. He asserts that President Bush has agreed to his plan, but while Sharon talks about "settlement blocs," Bush spoke about "population centers." There is a big difference between the two: a "settlement bloc" includes not only the large settlement itself, but also the smaller ones around it and the area between them. A "population center" means only the large settlement itself, which would leave a much smaller area to be annexed.
At Camp David, Ehud Barak proposed the annexation of 21 percent of the West Bank, in a way that would have cut the Palestinian territory into pieces. He also wanted to "rent" 13 percent more in the Jordan valley. Later, at the Taba conference, the annexation came down to 8 percent, but the tentative accord was repudiated by the Israeli government.
Yossi Beilin was the father of the "settlement blocs" concept, when, long ago, he reached an unofficial agreement with Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas). The more recent Geneva Initiative, proposed by Beilin and Yassir Abed-Rabbo, speaks only about an annexation of 2.3 percent, as part of a 1:1 territorial swap.
The Separation Fence now being built by the Sharon government is designed to further the ongoing enlargement of the settlements. It annexes 8 percent of the West Bank along its western border with Israel. The annexation of the Jordan valley in the East is, for the time being, left open.