Jerusalem: Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert says Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a "historic mistake" by rebuffing a peace offer made during negotiations in 2008.
Excerpts from an upcoming memoir by Olmert were published on Friday in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot.
They come days after the Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera released confidential documents about concessions the Palestinians were prepared to make in the same negotiations.
Olmert says he offered Abbas a Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza. Israel would have annexed 6.3 percent of the West Bank and given the Palestinians an equivalent amount of land inside Israel.
According to Olmert`s memoir, Abbas said he "needed time”, but the two didn`t meet again.
Bureau Report
