Concerned that a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation could end fledgling Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic momentum, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received a commitment from Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Jericho Monday that Abbas would not talk with Hamas, "despite the pressure," sources in Olmert's office said following the talks.
| I think having Hamas stage their little coup in Gaza might have caused the PLO to wake up for a moment and think outside the Armed Struggle™ box. Given Arab attention span, however, I'm not at all sure how long it's going to last. |
Olmert, according to officials in his office, told Abbas that he should not hold reconciliation talks with Hamas. A number of Arab countries - including Egypt and Saudi Arabia - as well as Russia have been trying to bring the two sides to negotiations.
| Yeah. Think about that next time somebody says "government of national unity." |
Abbas's reply, according to Israeli officials, was that he had no intention of renewing a dialogue with Hamas.
| "Give Gaza back. Then we can talk." |
Olmert met with Abbas for some three hours at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jericho, just north of the Israeli checkpoint at the southern entrance to the town. This was the first meeting between an Israeli and Palestinian leader in the West Bank since Ehud Barak met Yasser Arafat in Ramallah in 2000 before the outbreak of the Palestinian violence. Olmert and Abbas met for the first 90 minutes alone, and then were joined by their aides. Olmert said after the private meeting that he and Abbas decided to "widen" the discussions in order to "advance understandings and reach a working model that will allow progress towards establishing a Palestinian state."
"The aim is to achieve US President George Bush's vision which both we and the Palestinians share of two states for two peoples, living in security and peace side by side, and we want to do this as soon as possible," he said.
Olmert, at the beginning of the talks, said, "I came here in order to discuss with you the fundamental issues outstanding between Israel and the Palestinian Authority hoping that this will lead us soon into negotiations about the creation of a Palestinian state." Israeli officials stressed, however, that when Olmert says "fundamental issues" he is referring to building up accountable Palestinian governing institutions and an effective security apparatus, while the Palestinians believe that the fundamental issues include discussions on the borders of the future Palestinian state, the Palestinian refugees, the status of settlements in the West Bank and the future of Jerusalem.
Olmert drove by motorcade into Jericho, as two helicopters hovered overhead. The decision to meet in Jericho, despite security risks, was taken as a symbolic gesture to Abbas, and to send a signal of parity to the Palestinians. Israeli Officials described the atmosphere at the meeting, where a lunch was prepared by Saeb Erekat's wife, as "good" and "constructive."
"I'm delighted to see you," Olmert told Abbas, as they embraced outside the hotel. Both Palestinian and Israeli flags were set up for the meeting. According to Israeli officials, the two men agreed to cooperate in building up an effective Palestinian security apparatus and governing institutions.
| If they spent less time trying to wheedle more guns, knives, clubs, knuckle dusters, and ski masks for their "security apparatus" -- at one point 23 separate organizations during the Arafat daze of whine and roses -- and more time building up actual governing institutions, they'd be better off. And maybe they won't end up losing the slice of Paleostain they've got left. |
Abbas, according to sources in Olmert's office, called on Olmert to release more prisoners, beyond the 250 who were released last month. He also called on the prime minister to allow the return of some 20 Palestinian gunmen who were deported in 2002 to Europe and Gaza after they holed up in Bethlehem's Church of Nativity.
| I think I'd make a flat assumption of bad faith. The Church of the Nativity guys were thug, pure and simple. |
Olmert, according to this office, replied that he would consider these requests. Abbas also asked him to remove checkpoints in the West Bank and allow Palestinians more freedom of movement, something Olmert said that he would discuss with the defense establishment.
| And that'll last until the next al-Aqsa Martyr booms a disco or a bat mitzvah. |
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