The U.S. plan offered by Clinton and endorsed by Barak would have given the Palestinians 97 percent of the West Bank (either 96 percent of the West Bank and 1 percent from Israel proper or 94 percent from the West Bank and 3 percent from Israel proper), with no cantons, and full control of the Gaza Strip, with a land-link between the two... In exchange for the three percent annexation of the West Bank, Israel would increase the size of the Gaza territory by roughly a third. Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem would become the capital of the new state, and refugees would have the right of return to the Palestinian state, and would receive reparations from a $30 billion international fund collected to compensate them. The Palestinians would maintain control over their holy places, and would be given desalinization plants to ensure them adequate water.

If I could do the Ha'aretz editorial staff's job, I could do it better. I'm cautiously in favor of disengagement from Gaza and the northern West Bank (although much less so than I was two months ago). But let's not be stupid: territorial concessions won't make some Arabs stop wanting to kill Jews, and it won't make most Arabs accept the legitimacy of Israel. Arabs were trying to kill Israelis long before 1967, and they'll be trying to kill Israelis long after.

[Cross-posted on MereRhetoric]