Olmert and Abbas: Two Agendas, One Meeting in Jericho

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is going into a lunch meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jericho with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on Monday prepared to discuss establishment of a PA state, but not specific final-status details, according to an official in Jerusalem.

Olmert will reportedly stick to the issue of border crossings, security checkpoints and humanitarian aid.

“We’ve only just handed over a vast sum of money, released prisoners, provided military aid and authorized outside military aid,” said the official.  “We conceived a very handsome package…[which] bore results, stabilizing Abbas.”  He added that final status issues would not be discussed.

PA Chairman Abbas, on the other hand, intends to focus his efforts on the down-and-dirty demands to divide Jerusalem, to bring about the immigration of five million foreign Arabs claiming descent from the Arabs who fled Israel during the 1948 war, and directly set final borders.

Both understand, however, that the current Abbas administration is not ready to take on the task of enforcing peace in the PA-controlled areas, even though transfer of power over cities in those areas was a prime PA demand earlier in the year.

We've only just handed over a vast sum of money, released prisoners, provided military aid and authorized outside military aid.

PA Prime Minister Salem Fayyad bluntly warned Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and other officials in recent days that PA security forces are not able “to impose law and order … at this time”.

Senior PA officials said Sunday that Fayyad changed his agenda for the Jericho meeting, hoping to focus instead on “bolstering the [Fatah] PA’s position” in PA-controlled areas.

Israeli officials told reporters that Olmert’s agreement to meet for the first time in a PA-controlled city was his way of “trying to show that we are not patronizing, we’re partners.”  A previous meeting that was to take place in Jericho was transferred at the last minute to Jerusalem due to security issues.

Olmert aides said Abbas has so far made good on his promise to avoid returning to a so-called “unity government” with Hamas terrorists. “He understands that going back to Hamas’s  embrace [would be] a death-blow to the political process,” said the source.