Hamas is the winner of this summit, because the sense of this policy is that Hamas is being accepted as a legitimate partner for dialogue. 
Yoram Ettinger, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations, opines that visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has the mistaken conception that the Israel-PA issue will affect the fate of US efforts against Iran. "She wants concessions from both sides," Ettinger said.
A former liaison for Congressional affairs in Israel's Washington embassy, Ettinger spoke with Arutz-7's Yigal Shok following the three-way meetings of Rice, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and Fatah chairman Abbas in Jerusalem yesterday (Monday).
"The end result is the status quo; nothing has changed," Ettinger said. "Secretary Rice still hopes that Israel and Fatah will come closer and make concessions to each other, because what's important to her is not the Palestinian issue but the situation in Iraq and Iran; she feels - mistakenly, in my opinion - that the Palestinian subject is the heart of everything and causes all the shocks in the Middle East and can determine the effectiveness of any coalition against Iran."
Hamas Must Merely Make Verbal Commitments
However, he said, "Hamas is the winner of this summit, because the sense of this policy is that Hamas is being accepted as a legitimate partner for dialogue. Just like when Arafat 'as if' recognized Israel, and 'as if' abandoned the path of terrorism - even though the last 13 years have shown that this was not at all true - and now Secretary Rice is trying to get Hamas to do the same thing! Israel is going along as well. All they are asking is that Hamas 'commit itself' to the Quartet conditions. But we have received the same things in the past, and what did we gain? Abu Mazen is now portrayed as a 'leader of peace' merely for his words. The fact that his commitments are not being implemented in practice is a different story."
The purpose of Rice's visit was to "rush up the establishment of a Palestinian state and to bring Israel to uproot Jewish communities in Yesha [Judea and Samaria]," Ettinger said - "but this plan failed because of the Mecca summit and the current - I emphasize, current - problematic stance of Hamas. Rice's anticipations were great, but the reality was not quite that way."
Ettinger emphasized that the Israeli political leadership has come around to Rice's way of thinking, "namely, that Israel must withdraw to the pre-Six Day War borders and enable the establishment of a Palestinian state. This is either because Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzippy Livny actually believe this, or because they feel that there is no choice but to dance according to the tune of the State Department - even though this is not necessarily the stance of President Bush, and certainly not of Vice President Cheney and the Congress. This shows a genuine lack of understanding on the part of our leaders regarding what goes on in the U.S. and the true status of the Secretary of State."