Liberman’s land swap proposal shakes up peace talks

Published about a decade ago, the plan by Israel’s incumbent Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman for a land swap provoked a large public storm in Israel back in the day. Liberman, who at that time was construed to be a radical right-wing figure and an intransigent peace refusnik, told me in an interview (during which the plan was unearthed) that he would be willing to evict his home in the settlement of Nokdim in exchange for true peace. Declaring that he was not opposed to the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state, he asserted that Israel had no need for the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Achieving social cohesion between the right and the left in Israel, he added, was far more important than letting the political blocs in Israel hunker down behind their respective truths.

The plan he presented was both innovative and original. In the setting of the land swap with the Palestinian state, Liberman maintains his insistence that Israel hand over areas that are densely populated with Arab Israelis. He was referring to the Wadi Ara area that is home to some of the country’s largest Arab-Israeli towns, as well as to the Triangle, (including the towns of Taibe and Tira), which also consists of a large Arab population.

In return for these areas, Liberman contended, Israel would annex the large settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria, thereby striking a balance between the two states — Israel and Palestine — and allowing the peace agreement to begin on a solid footing.

As noted earlier, quite a few years have gone by since then. Israeli prime ministers came and went. Espousing a more radical right stance, Liberman spent most of his time bickering with Israeli Arabs and their brethren from the region, as his plan slipped to the sidelines. In recent years, when asked in closed forums about his diplomatic plan, he replied that the “topic was irrelevant.” Liberman took many shots at Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), declaring almost on a weekly basis that Israel had “no partner for peace.”