Palestinians, Israelis To Resume Talks

Jerusalem – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met on Sunday night with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in his Jerusalem residence, and presented Olmert with her outline for a new diplomatic initiative.

She followed that up yesterday with two sessions apiece with Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, including a lengthy evening meeting with Olmert in her Jerusalem hotel.

From those meetings came an agreement yesterday to resume open-ended, face-to-face talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a possible step toward restarting substantive peace talks, a U.S. official said.

After meeting yesterday with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Rice reportedly said that two tracks of negotiations would be launched after the upcoming Riyadh summit with the Palestinians and the Israelis.

The talks between the Palestinian and Israeli leaders will be open to all issues, said the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of a planned address by Rice today.

Olmert’s agreement to new talks was a small step, since he had held such sessions with Abbas before the Hamas deal, but it still was seen as a sign of fresh and surprising progress toward peace talks despite the complication posed by Hamas.

When Abbas and Hamas formed their coalition government last week, Olmert said he would talk about humanitarian and other concerns if need be, but he ruled out more detailed discussions or negotiations.

The secretary of state’s plan calls for convening a large peace conference next month, which will include the international Quartet – the U.N., the EU, Russia and the U.S., as well as the Arab states still under U.S. influence, Israel and the Palestinians.

This is Rice’s fourth visit to the region in the past two months, and she is more determined than ever to finally leave here with some kind of achievement. The Palestinians demand to immediately begin negotiations, while Israel demands that the Palestinians first show results – first and foremost on the matter of Gilad Shalit’s release and halting the missile fire from Gaza; 178 missile attacks have been launched from Gaza since the announcement of the cease-fire Nov. 26.

Rice will reportedly offer to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians – in two separate tracks – after admitting that direct talks are not possible in the present political climate. Rice has clarified to both sides that after the Riyadh conference, she will oversee two separate tracks, American-Palestinian and American-Israeli.

Meanwhile, at the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Olmert attacked Abu Mazen for, as he put it, “blatantly violating a series of commitments,’ and mainly the commitment he gave to Olmert and to world leaders – to bring about the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit before the Palestinian unity government is established.

For First Time: A Palestinian ‘Peace Now’

A new Palestinian movement, which was launched this week in Ramallah, “Wasatiya” – the Arabic word for “moderation” – is the first Islamic party that supports negotiations and a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a democratic and tolerant society domestically.

Mohammed Dajani, a professor of political science and director of the American Studies Institute at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, hopes to turn Wasatiya into a movement that will ultimately compete with Hamas over the vote of the silent Palestinian majority.

Wasatiya’s platform rejects the right of return – the return of the Palestinian refugees to their home, in the territory of the state of Israel.

“I would say to the refugees: ‘Move on with your life.’ We cannot let the past bury the future, even though it should always be remembered,” said Dajani.

He said that most Muslims are proud of their Muslim tradition, but many are uncomfortable with the extremism of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and after years of armed resistance, are tired of extremist militarism.

Time will tell as to the strength, credibility and power of this movement

Arab Member Of Knesset Parliament Crosses The Line

An Arab member of Israel’s Knesset Parliament, Israel Communist Party leader Mohammed Barakeh, arrived on Sunday in Yemen, an Arab country still in a state of war with Israel since 1948. He will meet with members of Arab terror groups that are based in Yemen, and participate in conferences convened in honor of the right of Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants from the 1948 war to return to the villages that they left in 1948.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com.

©The Bulletin 2007