The roadblocks to another Mideast summit

US Secretary of State Rice spent four days in the region trying to iron out differences between Israeli and Palestinian leaders ahead of November peace talks.

from the October 19, 2007 edition

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"There's a gap between the genuine desire of the Palestinian leadership to move forward, and [their] capability to do so," says foreign ministry spokesperson Mark Regev. "To ignore that gap is to ignore reality."

Arab and Palestinian officials say that without specific timetables and agendas, Israel will drag out meaningless talks and continue to create facts on the ground, a position expressed by Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit after his meeting with Rice.

"Some in the Arab world, and there are so many actually in the Arab world, that see that there are attempts ... to run out the clock and to maneuver and to go around and beat around the bush in order not to achieve the objective," Mr. Gheit said. "We cannot just negotiate endlessly."

The preconference document "has to answer, 'What is our vision about Jerusalem and how will we solve the refugee problem,' " says Said Zeedani, a Palestinian political analyst. "In the absence of that … this is not going to work."

"The Palestinian people in general are looking to see something on the ground," says Lt. Mohammed Shekuna, a police officer at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, hours after Rice visited the holy city. "They've been watching a lot of meetings, but the people want jobs and to move without roadblocks. Everything is still being negotiated."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is hardly stronger politically than Mr. Abbas. Mr. Olmert's political judgment has been attacked since last year's war with Hizbullah in Lebanon and his coalition relies on two right-wing parties that might withdraw their support if he makes too many concessions.

Washington has pressed the peace issue before, though not as hard. In 2003, President Bush took up the "road map" peace blueprint, which called for simultaneous Israeli and Palestinian gestures as a way to build confidence.

When the document's milestones were missed, the administration backed the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, hoping that could get peace talks back on track. Instead, Gaza, with Hamas in complete control, is internationally isolated.

Now, Annapolis is being seen as one final push for the Bush administration to show progress in what Rice has called a new "moment of opportunity" for the two sides.

"Nobody knows what we are going to get out of this," says Meir Javedanfar, a Tel Aviv-based Middle East analyst. "This is their last-chance saloon. With elections coming, they're gambling all or nothing. They are going for it."

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