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| By Israel Insider staff November 8, 2007 |
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| Minister Livni listens to her boss, Ehud Olmert (Flash90) |
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Apparently unable to work things out for themselves, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators are turning to U.S. mediators to bridge the yawning gaps in positions between the two sides, officials on both sides said Thursday.
A senior Palestinian negotiator called for American help after the two sides failed to resolve differences over a document they hope to present at the planned conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
Officials on the two sides couldn't even agree on what they disagreed about. Another senior Palestinian official said that when the sides disagreed this week over the terms of an earlier understanding that Washington would step in to judge in disputes over whether the sides were taking steps to implement the long-dormant "road map" accords of 2003, and said that to clarify the issue, U.S. officials had to send out a confirmatory written text. But a senior Israeli official said that was a non-issue of contention: "We agreed on that and there is no change."
Palestinian officials also expressed dissatisfaction regarding the lack of detail expected in the document that the two sides are discussing.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel's chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, was perhaps understating things when he said: "Anyone who thought it would be smooth sailing all the time was deluding himself." Self-delusion, actually, seems to be much in vogue in the statements of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other senior diplomats, who have been exuding optimism about the significance of the Annapolis meeting.
In a speech Sunday night, Olmert declared "now is the time" to sign a deal. The following day Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he had received "encouraging signs" from Israel. Standing next to Abbas, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was "tremendously impressed by the seriousness" of both sides. But then Rice left town.
The Palestinian Authority has said it wants the preface to the joint statement at Annapolis to say that a final-status arrangement will be completed within six months of the signing of agreements at the summit. The Israelis have objected to any firm deadline, although Olmert, during the recent visit of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, agreed with Abbas to strive to reach a peace agreement that would be reached while George Bush, and Rice, are still in office.
That expectation is looking increasingly unlikely, with Israeli military intelligence expressing the assessment that the chances of a successful conference are "virtually nil."
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