Maybe there’s a master plan at work behind the scenes. That’s possible. But on the surface, this looks like a total collapse of will: Olmert says ready to free Palestinian prisoners.

SDE BOKER, Israel (Reuters) - Israel is prepared to release many jailed Palestinians, including long-serving prisoners, in return for a soldier militants seized in June, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday.

In a major policy speech, Olmert said he was reaching out to the Palestinians for peace — offering a series of humanitarian and economic incentives if violence against Israel ceased.

Within hours of Olmert’s address, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired rockets into the Israeli border town of Sderot, despite a ceasefire declared on Sunday. There were no reports of casualties.