Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered major concessions at his meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Monday afternoon in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Jerusalem, but demanded in return that Abbas avoid any form of unity with the Hamas terrorist organization in the future.

The concessions included the release of 250 PA prisoners, with another 178 wanted fugitives to receive amnesty. The mass pardoning of terrorists was part of a major “good will” gesture to help increase Abbas’s stature among the PA population.

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“Abbas is under enormous pressure from Arab nations and the international community,” explained an Olmert aid. “He has recently taken a series of positive actions: he is using determined rhetoric against terror; he has issued a presidential decree that bans carrying firearms; and he has insisted that armed militias must not be allowed to control the streets.”

 

PMO staffers also told reporters that Olmert will demand that Abbas bring the PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria under tight control. “Meanwhile, we are willing to make these gestures to prove that Israel means what it says,” added the source.

 

Abbas had his own demands, including movement toward discussion on a final status agreement, as well as permission for a Jordanian army brigade to deploy in PA-controlled Judea and Samaria in order to help Abbas bring the areas under control.

 

He was also expected to request more weapons and other materiel from Egypt and full security coordination with Israel, which would prevent any more unilateral moves by Jerusalem.

PA security forces have already received a large shipment of weapons from Jordan, according to Maariv. The transfer of arms reportedly took place via the Allenby crossing on Sunday. Israeli officials agreed to allow the weapons delivery despite objections from senior security officials.

PA sources did not respond to reports of the weapons transfer.  Israeli sources admitted that official policy regarding weapons transfers to the PA has changed and said the transfer had been approved several weeks ago.

Olmert’s office flip-flopped over whether the government would include arch-terrorist and Fatah Tanzim leader Zekarya Zubeidi on its amnesty list, but eventually was forced to admit this week that he was indeed going to be included.

 

The 178 fugitives will all be made to sign a promise to abandon their terrorist activities and lay down their weapons, as will the 250 convicted PA terrorists to be freed from their sentences as part of the package.  Olmert’s office emphasized that none of the 250 prisoners to be released will have “blood on his hands,” meaning those who have taken part in an attack that has murdered Israeli citizens.

 

Other concessions included in the “good will” package are the transfer of tax monies collected by Israel on behalf of the PA that were withheld after Hamas was elected to the PA leadership, and the removal of security checkpoints in Judea and Samaria.