Nothing he says or does carries any weight. With a 3% approval rating he can't make ANYTHING happen. But if he were so stupid as to make ANY deals or concessions with the Palestinians, he would be wise to quadruple his body guard detail. As the ayatollahs' main man in the Knesset he is already under heavy security watch.

Palestinians insist on erasing Jewish settlements in the West Bank but demand sending 5 million Arabs to live in Israel. Not hard to understand why these meetings are so useless.

long run it will be the Pals that get the better deal, at this point talking to set the ground rules is better than shooting. Hopefully, if a deal is reached, Olmert will not be the one to close it.

We (in canada) had a similar fool leading our country,, (jean cretiean).. Now canada is a joke,, a lot of unrepairabe damage was done.. Israel is far to important to go down the same path... Get this guy out,, or suffer the concequences

..for Olmert back to hell and Ehud, take Kadima with you before you do any more harm to Israel..!

Hamas is much better for Israel than the "moderates", the moderates hide their true intentions and at least Israel knows where Hamas stands. Olmert and his friends cant see through the moderates smoke screen and are gonna take Israel for a ride. Olmert gives everything away, i wouldnt be suprised if he fired Peretz and put Abbas in his place that way he could further dismantle Israel.

Unless Isarel is willing to grant the Palestinians the right to return to their homes, there can and should be no peace for them.

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE ISRAEL, ALL THE ARABS ARE DOING IS PREPARING FOR WAR

Reconciliation between the Israeli & Palestenian people is needed. This can only be done throught the right of return & compensation to all Palestenian refugees from Israel & Jews refugees from Arab countries. No one shall stay out from his land forcefully.

ok, how about this, let refugees back, keep settlers and 1 state with 1 human being=1 vote asCIVILIZED nations?yes or keep settlers, let refugees back, 2 separate sovereigh states? ok? i guess not, now u know why it's useless...cause u want the cake and wanna eat it too

The so-called "right of return" (even if in fact there is no such "right") will be one of the last things to discuss anyways. Although it should be made clear to the Palestinians from the beginning that they must not expect that refugees will be granted return, this is really not one of the fundamental topics to discuss initially. I think that the first thing to do is to agree in principle (the details can be negociated later) on definitive borders. As such, I think that the acceptance by Israel IN PRINCIPLE of the Saudi initiative is a good move. You need to say "these are the borders we will work with. How to acheive that, we can now discuss". It's a long process, and I think that one of the reasons it failed into the 90s was because the Palestinians were impatient, and there was no consensus among Israelis.

Buy Gaza get 100% Judea & Samaria, Jerusalem including the old city, the Golan, every single settlement no matter where they have been built .. Judea & Samaria, Jerusalem, the Golan. Oh and dont forget the bonus prize of a refugee right of returm. The roadmap at least talks about a palestian state it doesnt specify what the exact borders of this state should be, it doesnt talk about dividing Jerusalem it says the refguees will go to the palestian state and it allows Israel to keep some settlement blocks. The Saudi plan that Olmert is so excited about gives everything including the Golan for NORMOL relations .. not full diplomatic relations with exchange of ambassadors etc. Peace with Iran isnt part of this package and there is no way Assad can give up his alliance with Iran and its support for terror in exchange for peace with Israel he would loose his best friend and be either overthrown or assasinated. At best Assad would make token arrests of terrorists now and again for image but make no real effort instead Assad would say he is doing his best the same way Arafat did, We have the roadmap for dealing with the palestians Egypt, Jordan are no problem and peace with Lebanon in itself is not a threat just the terrorists. The only real thing that anybody would notice is some arab states wouls say we formerly recognise Israel has a right to exist thats where the benefits end. Yossi Belin and Peres look like hard right wing compared to any politician who accepts a deal like this even Belin would never dream of putting forward a plan that gives so much for so little. How much more damage can this idiot Olmert do to Israel before he is kicked out S.O.S

Not surprising he is optimistic. Abbas will never again get such an incompetent fool to negotiate with. Olmert has to go before he destroys the country.

Does anyone - ANYONE - have a plan to stop this wholesale giveaway?

Right of return: give monetary compensation to the refugees instead of right to return. The same with Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Jerusalem: East to the Palestinians, the rest to us. Prisoner release: Release them. What's the point of keeping incarcerated and paying for their sustenance? Settlements: Discontinue all further construction. Evacuate all settlements housing fewer than 10,000 people. End of story.

Hello Lebenese, Will you give back the right of return and compensation for all the Jews who have been plundered and sent out from all the Arab countries. They also went back as refugees. You say the only way to peace is reconciliation. Pls go tell palis that. Hatred is fed from childhood. The school books call the jews as apes and pigs. First tell them to remove this hatred and then you can tell Israelis on what to do.

If the Palestinians want the right to return home, they should return to the Palestinian territories. It is no secret that they want all of Israel, so obviously they'll want to settle in with as many Arabs as possible, so as to outbreed the Jews and turn everything Muslim. Come on guys, are we THAT stupid?

Because of this Jewish mentality. this struggle will not be solved peacefully. As long as the world situation is as is with Israel enjoying unlimited American support. Nothing is going to change. We just have to be patients, and patients, and patients. One day, one day, justice will prevail again. And Palestinians will be able to return to their homeland of Palestine.

Any explanations? Why should any one just because he is a Jew come and live here. What makes him have this right? this does not make sense! Why not bring also all Christians here to to live since Jesus lived here once upon a time! The idea that Jews of today are the Jews of the ancient time is ridiculous because many Palestinians of today are also genetically related to the Israelites! The fact that Palestinians are muslims and christians "non-jews" should not be a reason to expell them from this land! This is the racism as its best. No wonder that the world negatively view Israel.

if ur that desperate to defend Israel...Those 5 million Arabs were kicked out of their houses and lands the same way your ancestors were massacred by Hitler. Stop taking advanatage of pur Social benefits and go back to defend your so called home land

when did you establish your hatred for the Palestinians and the rest of the world? Was that something they taught you during your childhood? My father is a Palestinian Refugee... We're Catholic... I don't know what you have been learning but my school books didn't teach that. And my father didn't get past primary school because he had to work because they had no food and no where to live so he didn't get taught that either. So seeing as that was the case, can we please have our home and land in Haifa back?

the same thing over and over--the Arabs?muslim wolrd pretneds it wants peace--then throws in right to return--which meanns right to "regain holy Islamic land taken over (temporarily) by8 infidels--the worst kind of Infidels--the despicable Jews who insulted the prophet"--in other words--the Arabs still want Israel and all its Jews to either die, move or submit to the insulting "yassuh boss" life of dhimmitude. The Muslims have no problem expelling Hindus from Kashmir; the Arabs have no trouble explelling Kurds form parts of Iraq and sending in Arab "settlers", the Arab "prphet had no trouble expelling Jews from Arabia for all time--so please you despicable people who call Israel racist for not wanting to commit suicide --the Arabs overran the entire Middle East and swarmed into Europe--let them retake Europe--but the only plitical ambitions of the Jews are to control this tiny semi arid territory the size of the stes of New Jersey and Cononecticut. So, to quote the would be first lady, Mrs. Kerry, "You can stuff it!"

Perhaps Olmert or any other Israeli representative qualified to make such decisions, should agree to the principle that all displaced Palisitinians, as all displaced people, have a right of return. That alone will be a big step towards peace. The feasibility of such a return can then be questioned and an alternative means of compensation to the right of return can be negotiated, if physical return is unfeasible. I am sure intelligent ways can be found to solve this issue. This is a two way street. Compensation packages must also be given to Jews from arab/muslim countries by their govts. as damages. And the international community can assist in this two way compensation process. And for all those who say that Jews do not have a right of return if they so choose to arab/muslim countries? Well an elderly (Jewish) relative of mine has decided to return to Morroco from Israel, and as afar as I can tell she is to be supported (b'cos of her age) by the govt of Morroco. This of course may not be true for all arab muslim countries.

The faster you get this into your head, the better off your people will be. Israel is the home of the jewish people. This is what the international community decided after world war 2. Palestinians had a chance at their own state but refused outright and now you are all crying about you forfather's mistakes. Guess what...its too late. Take what you can get and live peacefully with Israel as your neighbor, or keep going with your violent cvulture of death to try to reclaim what you say was yours.

You guys can talk all you like about "attitude" and "mentality" NOBODY DOES IT BETTER THAN YOU. The number of examples of the barbaric , primitive behaviour perpetrated by your "shiny" brothers - which is just swept over as if it never happens - is UNBELIEVABLE. THERE BE NO PEACE - NOT EVEN AMONGST YOURSELVES - LET ALONE THE JEWS. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.

Jews living outside the mideast defend Israel the same way that you and other Palestinians living outside the mideast defend Palestinians. The same is true for other ethnic groups defending their causes. People with no insight like yourself throw their accusations at others.