In newspapers, editorials, commentaries and letters to the editor, one constantly hears that "Barak offered Arafat 93% of the land and he rejected it. This is how we know he secretly desires the destruction of Israel."

The question is: WHY did Arafat reject this plan? Perhaps these maps can help you answer this for yourself.

Large contiguous areas which line the border and penetrate deeply into the territory would be defined as "settlement blocks." In essence it would make permanent the many settlements already there and legitimize the building of unlimited new settlements — these would be annexed to become part of Israel proper. All of the border with Jordan and several wide corridors into the territory would be under "indefinite" control of the the Israeli Defense Force and nearly all existing settlements would remain — only a few outlying settlements would be abandoned. This is precisely the plan outlined by Sharon in 1977 to prevent the formation of an economically viable state of Palestine: "facts on the ground."

Under this plan, the state of Palestine would consist of four areas separated by settlement blocks, Israeli security zones and access roads, which would be completely controlled by the IDF as the settlement bypass roads are now (off limits to Palestinians). This means that the "state" of Palestine would be only 60% of the West Banks, only 20% of historical Palestine (as it existed in 1900). In other words: Bantustans.

Barak said 95% of the West Bank — why the difference? He did not include parts of Jerusalem unilaterally annexed by Israel, nor did he include the "security"areas which would be under Israeli control for 20 years but he did include the area of the Dead Sea as part of the West Bank.

THE WALL: Is this fence really about "security?"

Compare the above map (what Sharon wants the West Bank to be in the future) with the path of the "security" wall now being built. As you can see, Sharon is just drawing the map the way he planned it to be all the way back in 1968, when he himself drew the map of where the settlements would be and what areas would be annexed to Israel and denied to the future state of Palestine.