Sharon Advisor Says PM Will Partition Jerusalem

Sharon Advisor Says PM Will Partition Jerusalem 16:19 Dec 14, '05 / 13 Kislev 5766 By Ezra HaLevi

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior campaign pollster Kalman Gayer has let the cat out of the bag: Sharon plans to divide Israel's capital, Jerusalem, should he win the elections.

Gayer made the statements speaking with Newsweek about the extent of the withdrawals Sharon is willing to make in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

The relevant passage in the Newsweek article states as follows: "In theory, Gayer says, Sharon would accept a Palestinian state in Gaza and 90 percent of the West Bank, and a compromise on Jerusalem, in exchange for peace. But the Israeli leader does not believe Palestinians will be able to deliver peace or make other compromises—like forgoing the right of refugees to return to their old homes in Israel—in his lifetime (Sharon is 78). In the meantime, Sharon wants to "lay the contours of an agreement with the Palestinians," according to Gayer, by creating a Palestinian state in half the West Bank and implementing confidence-building measures."

Sharon appeared on state-run television almost immediately, denying the accuracy of the claims. "The remarks attributed to Kalman Gayer absolutely contradict my positions and my views," Sharon said. "If those remarks were indeed made, they were made by Kalman Gayer alone and they are complete nonsense. United Jerusalem will remain Israel’s capital forever." Sharon then reiterated his commitment to the Road Map plan.

excerpts...

==>> The Road Map uses the term "East Jerusalem" as a separate entity from Jerusalem and calls for the opening of Palestinian Authority institutions in the area. There are currently close to 250,000 Jews living in areas of the capital considered East Jerusalem by the Road Map.

Prior to Sharon's announcement of the Disengagement Plan, the Gaza withdrawal plan was floated in the media by now-Finance Minister Ehud Olmert, and immediately denied by Sharon. Political commentators say such trial-balloons are a favorite method of Sharon's advisors, in order to gauge and diffuse public opposition to withdrawals.

MK Uzi Landau, who recently bowed out of the Likud leadership race and endorsed Binyamin Netanyahu, said, "We know from past experience that whenever the prime minister rushed to deny something – it is certainly true."

Labor MK Yitzchak Herzog said the whole story was just another manufactured story from the Kadima Party's public relations team, aimed at distracting the public from its lack of a social program.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) said, "It is painful to realize that the one who always accused others of planning to divide Jerusalem has been revealed in all his shame as intending to do so himself."

NRP Chairman Zevulun Orlev said that Sharon intends to once again lie to voters about his true intentions, like when he compared the retention of Netzarim to that of Tel Aviv prior to the previous elections. "Kalman Gayer says out loud what Sharon says in private," Orlev said. "It is now clear that in Sharon's mind, the 'fate of Jerusalem is like the fate of Netzarim.’"

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1134309575959&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Bibi: We won't let Kadima divide J'lem

Gil Hoffman and JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 14, 2005

Likud lawmakers on Wednesday seized the opportunity to attack Prime Minister Ariel Sharon following a report in Newsweek allegedly quoting his top aide Kalman Gayer as saying that Sharon would be willing to concede 90% of the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Sharon adamantly denied the report and issued a personal statement claiming that the report was "utter nonsense and that the only plan that Israel would follow is the road map, while greater Jerusalem would be Israel's capital forever."

Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz said he believed that the entire report was "a spin campaign intended to attract support from Labor voters."

Channel 1 TV's Washington correspondent, Yaron Deckel, who first brought attention to the report Tuesday night insisted that the report was not "spin."

"Believe me, I've been around long enough to know when something is spin and when it's not," Deckel told The Jerusalem Post. Deckel served as the political analyst for Israel Radio and Channel 1 for many years before being posted in Washington.

Deckel said that the reason the two-week-old Newsweek report only made headlines now was because he was in Israel last week and therefore didn't see the article until now.

Leading Likud candidate MK Binyamin Netanyahu pledged that the Likud would not let such a thing happen. "Newsweek revealed that the people who left the Likud are united by a plan to divide Jerusalem and give up 90% of Judea and Samaria," Netanyahu said. "It's clearer than ever that Kadima would divide Jerusalem, and we in the Likud won't let it happen."

At a tour of the Menachem Begin heritage center overlooking the Old City, the former prime minister accused Sharon of neglecting Israel's capital. He claimed that every Likud government from Begin's to his own, developed and strengthened Jerusalem, but the current government did not. Now, according to Netanyahu, it was clear why.

Trying to vilify the prime minister, Netanyahu recycled his 1996 campaign slogan "Peres will divide Jerusalem," replacing Peres's name with Sharon's.

According to Netanyahu, "Sharon's associates are exposing what he has been trying to hide, but that everybody knows: Sharon will divide Jerusalem and return the Palestinians to the 1967 borderline."

Sharon's comments should be taken seriously, said Uzi Landau, one of Netanyahu's top supporters. "When Sharon hurries to deny a rumor, then it's probably true." Netanyahu added that now, "the cat is out of the bag."

According to the chairman of the Kadima faction, MK Roni Bar-On, "The opinions stated by Gayer are his own personal beliefs. Gayer is Sharon's polls consultant; he is not a political or diplomatic advisor. Just as we do not use security or diplomatic experts to advise us on polls, we do not use experts on polls to advise us on security and diplomacy."

Senior Labor officials said that the publication of Gayer's comments is an attempt to divert public opinion from the difficult socio-economic situation. "This story is just another spin of Sharon's making," they charged.

Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin said, "It was shameful that Sharon, who has accused others of being willing to divide Jerusalem, is prepared to do the deed himself."

In the article, the aide conditioned the statement, saying that Sharon's willingness to okay broad concessions was theoretical because he is sure that the Palestinians are not ready or willing to enter such a peace agreement.

Instead, Gayer said, a more probable option was to create Palestinian state on half of the land of the West Bank as well as Gaza, and that the Palestinians would be expected to take confidence-building measures throughout the process.

Sharon said that if Gayer made the statement, he was speaking only for himself.

Sharon repeated his stand that united Jerusalem must remain Israel's capital forever, and the internationally backed "road map" peace plan is his only policy.

In the statement, Sharon said that the quote cited in the magazine is "diametrically opposed" to his policy. Israel TV also carried a denial from Gayer, who said he was only raising alternatives, not outlining Sharon's policies.

At another point in the article, Finance Minister Ehud Olmert said that Sharon was ready to accept a final arrangement that the Likud would have been unable to accept.

With the race to the March 28 elections heating up, politicians on the right and left were quick to comment on the Newsweek article, setting off a small political storm.

Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin said that the report highlighted the "danger of the Kadima Party, that it is trying to blur its standpoints in order to catch another extra voter here, another voter there."

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