Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met for breakfast Monday morning but did not hold a news conference and did not release details of their conversation. The meeting wraps up Secretary Rice's latest visit to the Middle East.
She said earlier that the United States is pressuring Israel to remove more roadblocks and checkpoints; the government has agreed to remove some of them at key areas that have been considered necessary for protecting Jews form terrorist attacks. Within 24 hours after the removal of one such checkpoint, recently, Arab terrorists attacked Jews in Samaria.
Israel took down 44 barriers since the Secretary's last visit in March, but a United Nations report has stated that those security concessions are insignificant. One of the proposed barriers to be taken down after Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day) is located near the Arab city of Yatta, south of Hevron, where numerous terrorist attacks have taken place since the outbreak of the Oslo War in 2000. Defense Minster Ehud Barak has promised that none of the roadblocks would be removed if it means endangering Jews.