Abbas, Olmert, Mubarak Will Meet Today
WASHINGTON — The three-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs begins today at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, where President Abbas, Prime Minister Olmert, and President Mubarak will begin mapping out ways to bolster Mr. Abbas's rule of a West Bank still occupied by Israeli forces.
Speaking in Amman yesterday, Mr. Abbas said he has been promised "progress" from both the Israelis and Americans. To start that is likely to be the first part of some $700 million in back taxes the Israelis have withheld from the Palestinian Authority since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006. The Israelis in turn are looking for Mr. Abbas to renew his commitment to the principles of the American-European-Russian-United Nations peace process known in the Bush White House as the road map. Those principles include a renunciation of violence, the accession to prior agreements, and active steps to rein in terror as a precondition to final status talks.
The main boost to Mr. Abbas will be the symbolic political benefit America is hoping he gains from meeting with the Israeli and Egyptian heads of state, who will in turn recognize the emergency government he created last week. The new regime in Ramallah purged all Hamas partisans following Hamas's takeover of the security services in Gaza. On Tuesday, representatives of America, Europe, Russia, and the United Nations, or Quartet, will also meet and are expected to recognize the new Abbas government.
As for the third state in the new solution, Jerusalem yesterday said it would be using two smaller crossings to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza, but that the main Karni crossing would remain closed for security reasons. At the summit today, one of the primary goals for Israel will be to persuade Mr. Mubarak to heed its demands to shut off the flow of Qassam rockets that have ended up in the hands of Hamas. Those rockets enter Gaza at the Rafah border crossing that separates Egypt's Sinai desert from the Gaza Strip.
Secretary of State Rice has hinted that the Hamas victory in Gaza now opens up an opportunity to pursue accelerated negotiations between Mr. Abbas and Mr. Olmert. No longer beholden to the agenda of Hamas, which seeks the destruction of Israel, Mr. Abbas, according to this thinking, will now for the first time in 18 months have the room to make the deal that Arafat rejected.
Mr. Abbas and his aides have said they are hoping to get some sort of commitment today that Israel will begin new negotiations for a final status solution in earnest. Yasser Abd Rabbo over the weekend told the Washington Post, "We will ask the Israelis to immediately resume talks on a final-status agreement and end the occupation."
Mr. Olmert told his cabinet yesterday, according to Israeli press accounts, "We have an interest in having this meeting, but I don't want anyone to think we're on the brink of a dramatic breakthrough."
The value of any agreement would depend in large part on the popularity and legitimacy of Mr. Abbas's Fatah Party with the Palestinian Arabs. Already, the meeting in Sharm el Sheikh has drawn contempt from Hamas. The recently deposed Palestinian Authority prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, yesterday said in Gaza that the prospects for the summit were a mirage. "The Americans won't give anything. Israel won't give us anything. Our land, our nation will not come back to us except with steadfastness and resistance," he said.
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum asked, "Is Israel releasing the money for free? No. It is in return for Abbas destroying Hamas and the resistance." In the meantime, the London Daily Telegraph's man in the Palestinian territories, Charles Levinson, reports on his Web log that many Hamas local politicians in the northern West Bank have left their offices and are on the run, while Fatah gunmen begin to target Hamas members there.
