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| Talks: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (r.) met with US Secretary of State Rice Tuesday in Ramallah. Thaer Ganaim/Reuters |
Rice meets harder lines in push for Israeli-Palestinian peace
In the West Bank Tuesday, Secretary Rice urged Israelis and Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.
from the March 5, 2008 edition
Page 3 of 3
Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, was more optimistic, raising the possibility of reaching what he called a "mutual tahdiya," using an Arabic word that suggests a calming or quieting of the conflict without an actual cease-fire.
"We need to begin a process of de-escalation," Dr. Erekat says. "We need to revive the negotiations and this goes parallel with Israel stopping attacks on Gaza and Hamas stopping the Qassam attacks on Israel."
After Rice's arrival from Egypt, she went straight to Ramallah, in the West Bank, to meet with Abbas and with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. She was due to have dinner with Mr. Olmert in Jerusalem and to have more meetings on Wednesday morning with Israeli officials before continuing on to Europe.
Olmert has made it clear that Israel plans to continue operations in Gaza, although an Israeli ground invasion over the weekend came to end late Sunday night. A key weekly government meeting on security issues was postponed until Wednesday, confirming assumptions here that Israel lowered the intensity of its military campaign in order to give Rice a chance to revamp the diplomat track.
Olmert's spokesman told reporters on the eve of Rice's visit that the only way Israel see to deal with Hamas to try to stop it militarily.
"We believe pressure applied to the Hamas military machine could ultimately bring results. A Hamas that is weakened will mean a better chance for the peace process to succeed," said Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman.
"We think it's a mistake to break off talks," Mr. Regev said of the PA's decision to halt negotiations with Israel. "We are not going to solve problems by not talking."
Among the demands of mid-level Palestinian politicians mounting the challenge to Abbas is that negotiations not be open-ended. "These negotiations need to be done within a time frame, since Israel otherwise will show the world forever that there are ongoing negotiations, as if they are being conducted between two countries and not between Israel and a weak [Palestinian] Authority," says Ayman Daraghmeh, a Ramallah-area PLC member aligned with Hamas. "Abbas should concentrate on the internal situation, by trying to initiate dialogue between Hamas and Fatah. This in my view is our priority and not fruitless negotiations with Israel."
[Editor's note: The original version misstated the number of times Condoleezza Rice has visited Jerusalem]
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