Rice Neared Mideast Peace Deal

In exclusive excerpts from Condoleezza Rice's new memoir, No Higher Honor, the former secretary of state said she thought a historic peace deal between Israel and Palestine was so close. During her trip to Israel in 2007, Rice said Israel’s then–prime minister Ehud Olmert said he was ready to make an extraordinary offer to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "I'll give him enough land, maybe something like 94 percent with swaps," Rice recalls Olmert saying. "There will be two capitals, one for us in West Jerusalem and one for the Palestinians in East Jerusalem. The mayor of the joint city council will be selected by population percentage." But when Olmert and Abbas eventually met, Olmert wouldn’t let Abbas consult his advisers and demanded they sign an agreement immediately. Abbas refused, and the deal was shelved.