As expected, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has tried to capitalize on the "new reality" created by the Hamas takeover of Gaza by pushing Israel into agreeing to initiate an express track towards the creation of a Palestinian state.
Rice reportedly made her move during Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's trip to Washington last week. According to reports in the Israeli press Sunday, she tried to nudge Israel into negotiating a final status solution with PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas -- but then holding its implementation in abeyance until he was strengthened in his position as Palestinian leader.
Although Olmert is ready to help bolster Abbas, and has himself chosen to see the Hamas putsch as useful for helping restart the dead-in-the-water diplomatic process, he was not prepared to agree to what has been coined a "shelf agreement."
At least not yet.
For Rice -- who appears to have been given President George W. Bush's blessing to set the direction and pace of the land-for-peace process -- it is essential to clinch some kind of a deal between Israel and the Palestinians before the current administration is rendered a lame duck -- even more than it currently is, with a Democrat-controlled Congress.
Bush and Rice have committed themselves to tie down an agreement by the end of 2008.
Having a final status solution already signed and sealed -- if not delivered -- would pretty much absolve them of having to do anything more.
Even if Abbas were unwilling or unable to implement such agreement, whatever was agreed would then become the starting point for additional Israeli concessions.
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