Israel FM declares victory, prepares for new gov't By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer SEPT 18,08
JERUSALEM - Israel's foreign minister eked out a victory Thursday in a surprisingly tight race to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as the head of the governing party, putting her in a strong position to become the country's first female leader in 34 years. Tzipi Livni, 50, said she would immediately turn to the task of trying to cobble together a new government.The national responsibility (bestowed) by the public brings me to approach this job with great awe, Livni said shortly after the results were announced.Livni, a political moderate, won 43.1 percent of the vote in the Kadima Party primary elections, compared with 42 percent for Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former military chief and defense minister, in a contest with far-reaching implications for peacemaking with the Palestinians and Syria.The official results were much closer than the double-digit victory predicted by exit polls Wednesday night.Olmert, who is stepping down to battle multiple corruption allegations, will remain as a caretaker leader until parliament approves a new Cabinet. He will resign after the next Cabinet meeting on Sunday, but spokesman Mark Regev would not say when exactly.Livni said she would launch informal coalition talks on Friday, even though President Shimon Peres cannot officially ask her to try to put together a government until Olmert resigns. After she is assigned the task, she will have 42 days to form a new ruling coalition.If she succeeds, she will become Israel's first female prime minister since Golda Meir stepped down in 1974. If she fails, the country will hold elections in early 2009, a year and a half ahead of schedule.Livni is Israel's lead negotiator in peace talks with the Palestinians and a rare female power figure in a nation dominated by macho military men and a religious establishment with strict views on the role of women.A lawyer and former agent in the Mossad spy agency, she is eager to continue the low-decibel diplomatic efforts. She says she hopes diplomatic efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program will prevail, though she says all options are on the table.Jerusalem resident Shula Lon said she hoped Livni's non-confrontational approach could help the peace efforts.
I really wish her the best, that she will bring peace, she said. After so many generations (when) nobody succeeded, maybe a woman could do it now.But Robert Bonam, another Jerusalem resident, said he feared that Livni's lack of military command experience could leave the country vulnerable in a fight with its enemies.Livni's victory puts her in a strong position to become Israel's prime minister, though that is not guaranteed and the process could take weeks. Livni says she wants to keep the governing alliance intact, but that is likely to mean tough negotiations over Cabinet posts and budgets.With opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline Likud Party polling well, neither Kadima nor its allies appear eager for a new election. But with the Shas party, a key coalition partner, making tough demands, Livni will have to perform some deft political maneuvering to put together a government.The ultra-Orthodox Shas opposes shared control of Jerusalem — the holy city claimed by Israel and the Palestinians. As lead peace negotiator, Livni is committed to discussing all the issues between Israel and the Palestinians, and the future of Jerusalem is at the heart of the conflict.If it becomes clear that Jerusalem is on the negotiating table ... then we won't be part of the coalition, Shas spokesman Roi Lachmanovitch said.Nationally, polls show Livni roughly tied with Netanyahu should balloting be held today. A new nationwide vote would likely turn into a referendum on the current effort to forge a historic peace deal with the Palestinians.
Palestinian Information Minister Riad Malki was hopeful that peace talks could succeed under Israel's new leadership. We welcome the results of the election, and we are going to deal with any new prime minister in Israel, he told The Associated Press. But West Bank resident Mustafa Shaaban was skeptical that things will improve. Speaking as he waited to pass through an Israeli military checkpoint, said frequent changes of leadership through Israel's 60 years of statehood have brought no real change in attitudes toward Palestinians. Since 1948 Israel is the same, he said. Whatever changes in leadership, it will have the same internal policy.
Wednesday's primary was Kadima's first since the party was founded by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005. Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke in early 2006, and Olmert subsequently led the party to victory in elections. Sharon set up Kadima as a personal bastion after his hard-line colleagues in Likud blasted his unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005. It was widely predicted Kadima would disintegrate after his exit, but the moderate Livni's victory appeared to give it a chance of survival. Olmert is under police investigation over his financial dealings. But he has been pursuing peace talks with the Palestinians and has pledged to continue as long as he is in office. However, both he and his Palestinian counterparts now say they are unlikely to reach the U.S.-set target date of year's end for a final peace deal. Three TV exit polls released just before the voting ended Wednesday night had showed a clear victory for Livni over Mofaz, about 47 percent to 37 percent, leading to premature celebrations. But official results saw that margin shrink dramatically to a 431-vote edge. This was not the first time exit polls have badly missed their mark here. Livni needed 40 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff next week. Two other candidates lagged far behind in the tally.
Second Palestinian battalion begins U.S.-funded training SEPT 18,08
ALLENBY BRIDGE, West Bank (Reuters) - About 500 members of a security force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas crossed into Jordan on Thursday for U.S. funded training, the second such battalion to do so. Washington wants to train the backbone of a Palestinian gendarmerie that would underpin any future state.The battalion from Abbas's National Security Force will undergo training for four months in police tactics, riot control and human rights, officials said.An official at the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge, between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, said the battalion crossed without incident.It is the second battalion from the NSF to undergo U.S.-funded training, part of the Bush administration's push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal this year. The other battalion returned to the West Bank in late May.The U.S. training program has fuelled tensions between Abbas's secular Fatah faction and the Hamas Islamist group, which seized control of the Gaza Strip last year.Washington provides non-lethal equipment to Abbas's forces. Arab allies provide guns and ammunition with Israeli consent.U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials assert that Hamas receives security equipment and training from Iran and other Islamist allies.The training is conducted by Jordanian police at the Jordanian International Police Training Centre near Amman.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas launched statehood talks last November with the goal of reaching a deal this year but the talks have shown little progress.Olmert, poised to step down as premier following his party's election of a new leader on Wednesday, has insisted that a Palestinian state will not be established until Abbas regains control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas and reins in militants in the West Bank, where his government is based.(Reporting by Adam Entous)
Livni Wins Party Vote to Succeed Olmert in Israel By TIM MCGIRK
SEPT 18,08
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won a narrow victory on September 17 to become leader of the ruling Kadima party, the first step in her bid to become the next prime minister. Livni, 50, an earnest, straight-talking former lawyer, defeated her closest rival, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, an ex-general, by a 1.1% margin. Livni won 43.1% of the vote compared to Mofaz's 42% - so close that some Mofaz stalwarts are insisting on a recount. Voter turnout in the Kadima primaries was also so low that the Haaretz newspaper noted acidly that ten times more Israelis turned out to cast their ballots for the country's version of American Idol than to pick the candidate likely to become the next premier.Livni now has 42 days to cobble together a governing coalition. If she fails, Israel is likely to face general elections within three months. The leadership battle inside the centrist Kadima party erupted when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was pressured into resigning by his party after police said he faced a possible indictment for alleged fraud and bribery. Even before the corruption scandal broke, Olmert's standing in the polls was abysmally low; blamed for a disastrous military campaign in Lebanon in 2006, his approval rating sank to 3% in the war's aftermath and remained in the single digits. At an exhibition hall in Tel Aviv rented by Kadima on election night to handle the media and party faithful - and where press outnumbered supporters three to one - Olmert's portrait was conspicuously absent, much the way that U.S. President George W. Bush was relegated to near-invisibility at the Republican convention. Olmert's aides say he is likely to step down on September 21, after conferring with President Shimon Peres. On tour in the Negev desert while his party voted, Olmert told a group of students: I decided to resign with pain, not with pleasure, I must say, really with pain. He added, less convincingly, I have no bitterness, no anger. Olmert was hoping that the primaries race between Livni and Mofaz would be forced into a run-off, giving him a few extra weeks at the helm.
Livni wants Olmert out. She is eager to take over, telling her supporters after her win that she wants to form a new cabinet as quickly as possible in the face of serious threats facing Israel. Israel's Generals say the nation's gravest threat is the possibility of a nuclear attack from Iran, though it now appears doubtful that Israel alone, without a green light from Washington, would launch an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Livni has her work cut out for her. In the days ahead, the new party head will try to lock up support from Kadima's current coalition partners - the dovish Labor party, a group representing pensions and the ultra-orthodox Shas party - which could give her a slim majority in the 120-seat Knesset or Israel parliament. But Shas is making demands on Livni, such as pushing for an increase in child allowance (ultra-orthodox families tend to be large) and making state education more religious. If Livni bends to Shas' demands, Labourites are threatening to walk out of her future coalition. But if she succeeds, she will become Israel's first woman prime minister since Gold Meir stepped down in 1974.
Knesset member Yitzhak Ben-Yisrael said he supported Livni's bid to become Kadima leader because she was someone clean who believed in fair play. Livni, he says, is likely to pursue the U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians. In interviews, Livni says she believes in a two-state solution with the Palestinians as the only way for Israel to remain a Jewish and democratic state. Yet she will face the same lack of support for the peace process among her hawkish coalition partners, and Kadima party members, that thwarted Olmert. Livni says one of her favorite hobbies is playing the drums. Her apartment neighbors are probably grateful that now she is Kadima party leader, and on route to becoming prime minister, she won't have time to bang away. But it will be one long drum roll in the weeks ahead to see if Livni can form a new governing coalition.- With reporting by Aaron J. Klein/Tel Aviv
Tutu urges UN body to show concern for Israelis By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer SEPT 18,08
GENEVA - Archbishop Desmond Tutu appealed to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday to show the same concern for protecting Israelis from Palestinian attacks as it does for Palestinian suffering under Israeli occupation. The council is dominated by Muslim nations and has been widely cited for frequently and heavily criticizing Israel while virtually ignoring rights problems elsewhere in the world.
Addressing human rights violations suffered by individuals in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories must be the prime motivating force for members of the Council, the Nobel Peace laureate said.But Tutu also said in compiling a report on Israeli-Palestinian violence for the council that he had been struck by the lack of international concern for Palestinians.The international community is failing to fulfill its role in respect of the suffering of the people of Gaza, he said.Israel's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, dismissed the report as one more volume in the vast library of U.N. reports on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that only result in one-sided condemnation of Israel.Tutu said he regretted that Israeli officials refused to cooperate with his investigation into the 2006 shelling of the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun and the simultaneous firing by Palestinian militants of Qassam rockets at Israeli civilians.Israel decided to withhold any cooperation with the mission, a decision that we deeply regretted, he said, noting this hampered efforts to be as balanced as possible.
The Israeli ambassador said Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians continue and Israel has a right to defend its people.Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: It's not fair to compare the self-defense of Gaza people to the mass use of weapons and huge arsenal of the Israeli occupation government, which has been used against our people in Gaza. We call on all the human rights bodies and the international community to differentiate between the victim and the slaughterer.Tutu said the Hamas authorities controlling Gaza also have an obligation under international law to stop firing rockets at Israelis. Still, he renewed his criticism of Israel for the 5:30 a.m. shelling attack on a residential area of Beit Hanoun on Nov. 8, 2006.After 30 minutes, 19 civilians were dead or mortally wounded. All but one of the victims were from one single family, Tutu said. Over 50 others were wounded during the attack.
Tutu said the Israeli military had admitted responsibility but claimed a technological error. He added that the lack of a credible explanation from Israel left open the possibility the attack was a war crime.Leshno-Yaar said Israel conducted a thorough investigation and shared those results with the United Nations, but Tutu said that was not enough.Leshno-Yaar said Israel was concerned that Tutu's mission legitimized Hamas' control over Gaza. Tutu defended his willingness to speak with Hamas leaders in Gaza even though Israel, the United States and European Union regard it as a terrorist group.Meeting with Hamas allowed us to hear their views, hear their concerns. It also allowed us to challenge their positions and to demand an end to the launching of rockets against civilians in Israel, Tutu said.He added that rights advocates must be able to speak with anyone who can stop human rights violations.True security and peace will not come from the barrel of a gun. It will come through dialogue and negotiation, Tutu said.
Water shortage cripples Palestinian farming By Mohammed Assadi
Wed Sep 17, 8:19 PM ET
BARDALA, West Bank (Reuters) - In the plains around the village of Bardala, the Israeli-Palestinian tug-of-war over land and water plays itself out in vivid colour -- largely brown Palestinian farms border green fields owned by Jewish settlers.
Israel and the occupied West Bank have both been hit hard by drought, but Palestinian farmers say Israeli restrictions on their water supplies have made conditions far worse for them than for farmers in nearby Jewish settlements.In many homes in the West Bank city of Jenin, water has been all but cut off since April. To cope, residents of Jenin and hundreds of villages get their water delivered by truck at sky-high prices.In U.S.-sponsored peace talks over Palestinian statehood, disputes over water may be overshadowed by more sensitive issues like the future of Jerusalem and refugees. But Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said an accord would be unthinkable without agreement on dividing up the region's water resources.If you want to have a state, you must have water, said Palestinian Water Authority chief Shaddad Attili.In Bardala in the northern Jordan Valley, Ziyad Sawafta says he gets only enough water to plant eggplant, cabbage and other crops on half his 125-acre (50hectare) plot.To illustrate the disparity, Sawafta, a 60-year-old father of four, points to the thriving citrus grove next door, owned by the Jewish settlement of Mehola and fed with water through a network of irrigation pipes.We get only the ear from the whole camel. The rest of the camel goes to the settlements, said Sawafta, using a common Arab saying to illustrate how little water he receives.Uri Shor, spokesman for the Israeli Water Authority, said Palestinians get more water than called for under interim peace agreements. He attributed shortages to Palestinians who he said illegally tap into the water system.
SCARCE WATER
Water has long been a scarce resource in the Middle East but the problem is more acute this year. Scant rainfall has further strained supplies already restricted by Israel, which largely controls the West Bank's three main aquifers.Water Authority Chief Attili estimated Palestinian farmers in West Bank and Gaza need 250 million cubic metres of water per year only for irrigation, but they get only about 20 percent of that, or about 50 million cubic metres a year.The total amount of water that Palestinians get from their own resources and from Israel is estimated at 205 million cubic metres annually.People and land are thirsty and we can do little about it, Attili told Reuters.Palestinian officials say Israel controls some 50 West Bank wells, with a total capacity of 50 million cubic metres per year, directing it mainly to Jewish settlements, which house some 250,000 people.The Palestinians control about 200 shallow wells in the West Bank, many of them drilled before the 1967 Middle East war in which Israel captured the territory. Those wells produce about 105 million cubic metres per year, but they are meant to supply water to 2.5 million Palestinians.Attili says West Bank Palestinians supplement their own well supplies by buying up to 45 million cubic metres of water from Israel. Another 5 million cubic metres bought from Israel goes to the Gaza Strip, supplementing 50 million from an aquifer.A big part of the problem for Palestinians, officials and rights groups say, is that the amount of water supplied by Israel, set by quotas in interim peace agreements in the 1990s, has not increased in line with Palestinian population growth. That is not fair, Attili said, adding that the shortages could be alleviated if Israel allowed his authority to drill two or three new wells in the West Bank.
But Shor, of the Israeli Water Authority, said permitting Palestinians to drill more wells could ruin the existing West Bank aquifers. Israeli officials say Palestinians aren't the only ones facing water shortages. Underscoring its concerns, Israel's government has launched a public campaign to discourage residents and businesses from wasting limited supplies. Abdel-Rahman Tamimi, head of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, said there was no comparison between the shortages facing Israelis and those facing Palestinians in the West Bank because some areas do not even have piped water and other areas suffer from irregular access to drinkable water. He described the West Bank water crisis as suffocating because it affects both families and businesses, whereas Israel is talking about reducing water for recreational purposes, such as ... swimming pools and lawns.A recent report by the Israeli human rights group B'tselem said Israeli households consumed on average 3.5 times as much water as Palestinian households. The group attributed the water shortage in Palestinian areas to what it called Israel's discriminatory policy in distributing water resources and restrictions on drilling new wells.
WATER TRUCKS
The shortages have translated into brisk business for water delivery trucks in several West Bank areas. Jenin is connected to the water system but dwindling supplies have forced many there to turn to water vendors, whose prices have soared due to heavy demand and limited supply. A recent U.N. report found that Palestinians in some of the hardest-hit communities were spending as much as 30 percent to 40 percent of their income on water delivered by truck. The Israeli Water Authority did not return several calls from Reuters to request similar information about Israeli consumers. I have never witnessed such shortage before, said Hussein Rahhal, a 73-year-old Jenin water vendor, as he stood by his truck in a long queue of similar vehicles waiting to fill their tanks. He added that some Jenin wells have already dried up. His colleague, Hashem Abdel-Hafith, who nodded in agreement with Rahhal, said he switched off his mobile phone because he couldn't keep up with callers demanding water. I kept answering: No water, Abdel-Hafith said. In Bardala, home to nearly 2,000 Palestinians, farmers remember better days. Bardala had a surplus of water until the late 1970s when Israel drilled three deep wells next to the village's four shallow wells, causing them to dry up, they said. Since then, Israel has reduced the amount of water it pumps to Bardala's farms, from 240 cubic metres per hour to 140, forcing many to slash production by up to 50 percent and to choose crops such as eggplant and beans that can survive on one watering per week. Yousef Sawafta, another farmer from Bardala, said prices were falling because everyone in the village was planting the same drought-resistant crops. In the past, one could find all kinds of vegetables throughout the year. It is not the same any more, he said. (Editing by Charles Dick)
Palestinians hope next Israeli PM will continue peace talks Wed Sep 17, 4:04 PM ET
JERICHO, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinians expressed hope Wednesday that the next Israeli prime minister will continue peace talks after Israel's Kadima party voted to replace embattled premier Ehud Olmert. Exit polls showed Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni winning the unprecedented Kadima party vote to replace Olmert, who announced in July he would step down to battle corruption allegations.Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP the Kadima vote was an internal Israeli affair but said he hoped the next premier would take steps to withdraw Israeli settlers from the occupied West Bank.We hope there will be comprehensive and serious negotiations and that the Israeli voter will choose the removal of the settlements and the wall and strong cooperation with a Palestinian partner, he said.The only choice is to end the Israeli occupation.Livni has been leading negotiations with the Palestinians since the peace process was formally relaunched after a seven-year hiatus at a conference in the United States in November, but so far the talks have made little progress.If she does not succeed in forming a new government within 42 days snap general elections will be held three months later, with the opposition right-wing Likud party favoured to win the most seats.
Livni wins party vote to replace Israel's Olmert: exit polls Wed Sep 17, 3:28 PM ET
TEL AVIV (AFP) - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won a decisive victory in an unprecedented Kadima party vote on Wednesday to replace Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to exit polls. Exit polls from three different television stations showed her winning between 47 and 49 percent of the vote, with a lead of at least 10 points over her main opponent, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, giving her a clear victory.Livni , who has been leading US-backed negotiations with the Palestinians, would have 42 days to form a government if she hopes to avert snap elections that polls say would bring the right-wing Likud party to power.
Settlements make Palestinian state impossible: Arab League by Maya El Kaliouby Wed Sep 17, 10:49 AM ET
CAIRO (AFP) - Israel's policy of Jewish settlement building on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank is making a future Palestinian state impossible, Arab League chief Amr Mussa said on Wednesday. Mussa said he would take the matter to the United Nations Security Council in New York and also ask for the Middle East peace quartet of the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States to discuss the matter.Settlements not only change the demographic and geographic composition of the occupied territories but make ... the establishment of a Palestinian state impossible, Egypt's official MENA news agency quoted Mussa as saying.He said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal had already contacted the Burkina Faso president of the Security Council, Michel Kafando, with a view to the council holding an extraordinary ministerial meeting.Prince Saud called on September 8 for the Security Council to hold a meeting on Israeli settlements.Israel is undermining the conditions of the peace process by intensifying the construction of settlements to change the situation on the ground, Saud said, adding that Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas backs the request.Settlements activity will be discussed at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in New York on September 24 and when the Middle East peace quartet and the UN's Arab group meet at around the same time.
Settlement activity can eliminate all the conditions necessary for the foundation of a Palestinian state and will necessarily lead to the abandoning of the choice of founding a state, Mussa said.Israel and the Palestinians have been holding formal US-backed peace talks since November 2007 aimed at resolving their decades-old conflict by the time US President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.The construction of Jewish settlements -- viewed as a major obstacle to reaching a peace deal -- has nearly doubled since 2007, the Israeli watchdog Peace Now said last month.The Israeli housing ministry initiated 433 new housing units during the period of January to May 2008, compared to just 240 units during the period January to May 2007, Peace Now said.The number of tenders for construction in the settlements increased by a massive 550 percent, from 417 housing units compared to 65 units in the same period last year.In Arab east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War, the number of tenders has increased by a factor of 38, the group said, from 46 units in 2007 to 1,761 in 2008.The international community considers all settlement projects in the Israeli-occupied territories to be illegal.
Israel postpones Turkish-brokered talks with Syria by Roueida Mabardi
Wed Sep 17, 10:30 AM ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) - A fifth round of Turkish-brokered peace talks between Syria and Israel this week has been postponed at Israel's request, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Wednesday . It has been postponed at the request of the Israeli side, Muallem told a press conference with visiting Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos.The next round of talks between the two neighbours -- which have technically been at war for 60 years -- was due to be held on Thursday.When Israel is ready to resume the talks, we will be too because we want to build a solid base that will allow the launch of direct negotiations whatever the outcome of the Kadima party election in Israel, Muallem added.He was referring to the party of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which was voting for a new leader on Wednesday after the premier announced he was stepping down to fight corruption and influence-peddling allegations.Turkey, which has been acting as mediator in the talks, confirmed that Thursday's planned meeting had been cancelled at Israel's request.Israel said it failed to complete the formalities that would allow its chief negotiator, Yoram Turbowicz, to remain on the negotiating team after he resigned from his post as Olmert's general secretary, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said.
The Israeli side has emphasised that it is ready to resume the talks as soon as this technical and legal process is completed, it said, adding that a new date for the fifth round had not yet been fixed.A senior Israeli government official confirmed that there are logistical problems with the status of Mr Turbowicz.But he said Israel hoped to resume the negotiations soon.Israel is committed to pursuing peace with Syria and we hope that there will be another round of talks in Turkey very shortly, the Israeli official said.Israel and Syria launched indirect negotiations brokered by Turkey in May, eight years after talks were frozen over the fate of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.Syria has said that ultimately only Washington has the clout to sponsor direct talks, although it has been keen to win greater international support for the process.Syria has always called for a European role in the peace process equal to the US one, as Europe is nearer to our region and has an interest in its security and stability, Muallem said.
We discussed with Mr Moratinos a scenario for... the direct negotiations in order to show that the international community is interested in sponsoring a just and comprehensive peace on all tracks.Moratinos said the European Union was keen to do what it could to help advance the process.One of the most important changes I can see in the Middle East is that the countries in the region itself are taking their own responsibilities, he said, hailing Turkey's role in brokering the indirect preparatory talks between the two sides.Asked whether Madrid, which hosted the 1991 conference that launched the Middle East peace process, was ready to host a new conference to relaunch it, Moratinos said: Spain is always ready to welcome any peace conference. But let things go step by step now the different tracks move steadily and seriously and then the parties and the international community will decide if they want to have a comprehensive peace conference.
Olmert, Abbas sit down to discuss peace efforts By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer Tue Sep 16, 5:57 PM ET
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sat down together Tuesday night to discuss their push to forge a peace agreement by the end of the year even as the Israeli leader prepares to leave office. The talks came a day before Olmert's Kadima Party chooses a new leader in a process that could put peace efforts on hold for months. Olmert says he will resign over corruption allegations after the Wednesday ballot, though he could remain in office until next year if his resignation leads to new national elections.After the two-hour meeting, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said only that the core issues of the conflict were discussed. He did not elaborate, but those issues are known to include borders, Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements and Jerusalem.
Regev said the two would meet again after Abbas returned from the U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month. He said Olmert will continue to press ahead with the talks as long as he is prime minister.Olmert and Abbas have met regularly since last November, when they renewed peace talks and pledged to try for an accord by this January. Regev said Olmert believed that is still possible.What is required is effort, creativity and flexibility, Regev told reporters outside Olmert's residence, where the meeting took place. We on the Israeli side are committed to that effort.But other Israeli officials, including Vice Premier Haim Ramon, are pessimistic. Ramon said earlier this week that he did not expect an agreement this year or next year.Abbas told Olmert there must be agreement on all the core issues, said negotiator Saeb Erekat, who attended the meeting. President Abbas told Olmert that we would not be a party to any partial accord, Erekat said.Internal Palestinian violence in Gaza Tuesday between the ruling Islamic Hamas and an outlaw clan underlined a basic problem facing Abbas and Olmert — Abbas rules only the West Bank. His Fatah forces were expelled from Gaza by Hamas last year. Israel believes no accord can be implemented until Abbas regains control of Gaza.The overnight violence, which left 11 dead and more than 40 wounded, showed the extent to which Gaza has become a difficult to rule armed camp of competing forces.Two bystanders, including a boy, were among the dead in the clash.Machine gun fire and explosions were heard around the Gaza City neighborhood of the Doghmush clan, notorious for links to both militant and criminal groups. Members of the clan were responsible for kidnapping a British Broadcasting Corp. journalist last year.
Two years ago, they were involved in a cross-border raid in which an Israeli soldier was captured and two others killed. The soldier is still being held, and Hamas is demanding release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for him.The fiercely independent and widely feared Doghmush clan includes gunmen close to Fatah, as well as members of Islamic militias that have been allied with Hamas.Hamas launched the assault shortly after midnight, hours after a member of the Doghmush clan killed a policeman. The fighting erupted after the clan refused to turn the man over, said Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab Ghussen, and continued for about nine hours.Eight members of the family and one policeman were killed, along with the two bystanders, he said.The internal fighting was the deadliest in Gaza since early August, when 11 people were killed in a Hamas-Fatah clash.Associated Press writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report.
