Mofaz: Talk to Hamas, Palestinian state in a year

Kadima MK Shaul Mofaz on Sunday presented a plan to negotiate with Hamas and establish a Palestinian state on 60 percent of the West Bank within one year.

"Assuming that Hamas is elected and will want to sit down at the negotiating table, at that moment it accepts the Quartet's conditions and is no longer a terrorist organization," Mofaz said at a press conference on Sunday.

"The state of Israel must sit down with any element that changes its priorities," Mofaz said.

"I believe that responsible leaders sit down with such elements," he continued. "I know that Hamas continues to fire and amass long-range missiles and prepare for conflict with Israel, and I want to tell Hamas leaders that if they continue on this path, their fate will be decided."

Mofaz developed his proposal following consultations with figures in the defense establishment, the heads of think tanks and politicians. He contends that the stalemate in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians is dangerous from a demographic standpoint and with respect to Israel's legitimacy in the world.

According to the Mofaz plan, in the initial stage of the establishment of a Palestinian state with provisional borders there would be no need to uproot Jewish settlers in the West Bank, but legislation would be enacted to show Israel's serious intent, providing for the subsequent relocation in the Galilee and in West Bank settlement blocs of about 70,000 residents of isolated settlements.

Mofaz has not excluded the possibility that outlying Jerusalem neighborhoods would eventually become part of the independent Palestinian state.

Mofaz accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of stalling the Middle East peace process and of wasting time that the country doesn't "have the privilege to waste."

Mofaz's proposal is a challenge not only to Netanyahu but also to his own party's leader, Tzipi Livni.

The Mofaz plan provides a centrist, pragmatic approach. He intends to initiate a debate on his plan at a meeting of the Kadima party council.

From a political standpoint, Mofaz has signaled that he has no interest in returning to Likud and that he seeks to make a bid for the leadership of Kadima.