Says she'll push Israel to divide capital, blame Olmert if he doesn't comply
By Aaron Klein
Condoleezza Rice
JERUSALEM – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in the region to prepare for an Israeli-Palestinian summit next month, told Palestinian officials yesterday she would pressure Israel against initiating any Jewish construction in eastern sections of Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian negotiator involved in talks with Rice told WND.
The Palestinian negotiator stated Rice singled out Jerusalem areas as becoming part of a future Palestinian state and told his negotiating team she would publicly blame Israel for the failure of next month's U.S.-sponsored summit slated to be held in Maryland if the Jewish state didn't agree to evacuate eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods.
The information follows a flurry of media reports last week Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was contemplating handing over sections of Jerusalem to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization.
Vice Premier Haim Ramon, a member of Olmert's ruling Kadima party, last week reportedly mapped out a future partition of Jerusalem under a deal with the Palestinians. Ramon was quoted by the popular Ynet Israeli website as writing in a letter to Jerusalem City Councilman Nir Barkat that under his plan, "The Jewish neighborhoods (of Jerusalem) will be recognized as Israeli and under Israeli sovereignty. Accordingly, the Arab neighborhoods will be recognized as Palestinian. Passages between the Israeli neighborhoods will be open and secure – accordingly the same will be true for the Palestinian neighborhoods."
According to Ramon's reported plan, "There will be special sovereignty over the holy sites, taking into account Israel's unique interests in overseeing them. Within this framework, the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter and other holy sites in the Jerusalem vicinity will remain under Israeli rule forever."
Ramon's letter as quoted did not single out the fate of the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site.
Knesset Member Otniel Schneller, a Kadima party colleague of Olmert and Ramon known for his close relationship to the prime minister, claimed the plan violated the Kadima's platform.
But WND first reported in 2006 it was Schneller who first floated a Kadima plan for dividing Jerusalem.
"The Old City, Mount Scopus, the Mount of Olives, the City of David, Sheikh Jarra will remain in our hands, but [regarding] Kafr Akeb, Abu-Ram, Shuafat, Hizma, Abu-Zaim, Abu-Tur, Abu Dis, in the future, when the Palestinian state is established, they will become its capital," said Schneller at the small Jerusalem debate in May 2006, covered by WND.
Days later, Schneller gave an interview to the Associated Press in which he stated "We will not divide Jerusalem, we will share it."
The Kadima lawmaker told AP most Jerusalem neighborhoods with large Arab populations would be given to the Palestinians.
"Those same neighborhoods will, in my assessment, be central to the makeup of the Palestinian capital ... al-Quds," said Schneller, calling Jerusalem by its Arabic name.
Rice arrived in the region yesterday reportedly to help the Israeli and Palestinian sides formulate a joint statement ahead of November's conference.
Palestinian leaders want the statement to specifically outline a Palestinian state including the Gaza Strip, West Bank and parts of Jerusalem, while Olmert officials have been quoted in recent days stating they prefer more vague commitments.
'Olmert will forfeit Temple Mount'
According to senior Palestinian negotiators, Olmert's team expressed willingness multiple times to divide Jerusalem and place the Temple Mount under pan-Arab control.
WND in August quoted PA sources stating Olmert's office presented the Palestinians a formal plan in which the Jewish state would forfeit the Temple Mount to Muslim control under the joint management of Egypt, Jordan and the PA.
The sources said Olmert's plan called for the entire Temple Mount plaza to fall under Arab sovereignty; Jerusalem's Old City holy sites near the Mount to be governed by a Jewish, Christian and Muslim task force; and the Western Wall plaza below the Mount to be controlled by Israel.
David Baker, a spokesman for Olmert, would neither confirm nor deny the prime minister offered the Temple Mo
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