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| By Israel Insider staff and partners December 23, 2006 |
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a long-overdue summit Saturday, reviving hope that peace talks can resume after years of fighting, hostility and distrust.
The meeting took place at Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem, the first substantial talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a year-and-a-half. The meeting was announced by Olmert's office and a senior Abbas aide on short notice, following several days of intense preparations.
Olmert said after his meeting that he and the Palestinian leader agreed to cooperate as "real partners." A statement by Olmert's office described the atmosphere during the two-hour meeting as friendly.
"Both leaders agreed that this meeting was the first step toward rebuilding mutual trust and fruitful cooperation," the statement said.
During the meeting, Olmert agreed to transfer $100 million in frozen funds to Abbas, according to Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin.
Eisin said Israel plans to transfer the money soon, but that it wants to make sure the funds don't reach Hamas.
After Hamas came to power, Israel froze tens of millions of dollars in tax rebates and other funds it used to transfer to the Palestinians.
There was no word on the freeing of kidnapped soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit. Previously Olmert had said he would not meet Abbas until Shalit was free.
The prime minister emphasized during the meeting that no Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails will be freed prior to the release of Shalit, held since June 25 by several Palestinian militant groups. Nonetheless, Olmert did agree to reestablish a joint committee with the PA to discuss prisoner releases, Haaretz reported.
According to Erekat, Abbas asked Olmert to release members of the Palestinian Legislative Council from Hamas, as well as renew a past agreement not to pursue wanted militants, Haaretz said, although there was no report of Olmert's response to this request.
Olmert warned Abbas that given the continued Qassam rocket fire, it will be difficult for Israel to maintain its policy of restraint. Responding to a request by the Palestinian delegation to extend the cease-fire to the West Bank, Olmert said the Palestinians must first demonstrate an ability to uphold the truce in Gaza, Haaretz reported.
The two reportedly shook hands and kissed cheeks. Olmert introduced his left-wing wife Aliza to the Palestinian leader.
Olmert and Abbas had met once briefly over breakfast in Jordan, under the auspices of Jordan's King Abdullah II.
Both leaders are facing serious political problems at home, and a peace breakthrough could help both.
Abbas is locked in an increasingly bitter and violent showdown with the Islamic militant Hamas. Last week, he said he would seek early elections, a dramatic challenge to the 10-month-old Hamas government. His announcement intensified factional fighting between Abbas-allied security forces and Hamas gunmen, particularly in the Gaza Strip, and there are fears that Palestinians will descend into full-scale civil war.
Olmert, elected in March, has lost much of his popularity during the summer's war with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, which many in Israel believe ended inconclusively. The war also discredited Olmert's political program, a promise to withdraw from much of the West Bank and draw Israel's borders unilaterally by 2010, without waiting for a peace deal.
Key issues on the agenda will be the release of tax rebates and other funds Israel collected for the Palestinians but froze after Hamas came to power. The two leaders will also discuss an easing of Israeli travel restrictions in the West Bank and the fate of an Israel soldier captured by Hamas-allied militants in June.
Palestinian officials have said in the past Abbas will not agree to a summit unless the outcome is agreed on ahead of time. It was not clear whether he got Israeli assurances on any of the issues.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said he hoped the meeting would help ease the suffering of the Palestinians and that Israel would release the frozen funds. However, Barhoum was skeptical. "We have never gotten results from such meetings in the past," he said.
In Gaza, meanwhile, factional fighting continued. In the southern Gaza town of Rafah, assailants fired on the car of a senior Palestinian security official, wounding him, a bodyguard and a girl.
The target, Hassan Jarbouh, is the deputy chief of the Rafah branch of the Preventive Security Service, which is loyal to Abbas. Preventive Security blamed Hamas for the attack.
Jarbouh, who was on his way to work, was in critical condition. His bodyguard and the girl, a bystander, suffered moderate wounds.
The deadly confrontations in Gaza began nearly two weeks ago, with a shooting ambush that killed the three young children of an Abbas-allied intelligence officer.
In all, 17 people have been killed and scores wounded in factional fighting, including heavy gun battles in densely populated neighborhoods, since the ambush on the young children. |
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