The three advisors are:
* Yoram Turbowitz, who conducted the coalition negotiations on behalf of Kadima, which some view as a failure in that the coalition numbers only 67 MKs, with both Yisrael Beiteinu and United Torah Judaism on the outside;
* Ariel Sharon's top aide Dov Weisglass;
* foreign affairs advisor Shalom Turjeman.
They are meeting with top U.S. Administration officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, in preparation for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's first meeting with President Bush since taking office. The summit is to take place next Tuesday, May 23.
Olmert wishes to coordinate his "convergence plan" - a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria involving the uprooting of some 70,000 Jews from their homes - with the United States. Olmert has said he will first attempt to negotiate with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, and that only if this fails will he move unilaterally. The rub is that the meaning of the word "fails" in this context is obtuse - and that the U.S. and Israel are most likely not at all in agreement on it.
Arutz-7 analyst Haggai Huberman notes that while the U.S. cannot oppose an Israeli withdrawal, it does object to Israel determining its own final borders unilaterally.
Jerusalem diplomatic sources told Huberman that one of the main unanswered questions at present is who will determine when the negotiations with the PA have been exhausted. What may appear to Olmert to be the end of negotiations and a green light to start withdrawing, may appear to the U.S. to be merely an obstacle to be overcome.
Olmert is not interested in talking with Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader who chairs the Palestinian Authority - probably because he sees no point in negotiating with a man who heads the opposition in the PA. However, Olmert is being pressured to do so from many quarters: Abbas himself, Olmert's own Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and the United States.
Olmert can rebuff Peretz, as he did this week by blatantly ignoring Peretz's proposal to send 50 million shekels of humanitarian aid to the Hamas Authority. He cannot do so as easily with the U.S., however. It is likely that only after Olmert meets with Abbas, presents him with an outline for a permanent arrangement, and has him [Abbas] turn it down outright, will he be able to say he has "exhausted" negotiations with the PA.
In a speech at a Movement for Quality in Government event yesterday, Peretz said, "I believe that Olmert will make a sincere, genuine and serious effort to try to reach an agreed-upon arrangement with the Palestinians before he makes any decision on a unilateral plan."
Peretz also said that the convergence plan stands at the "center of the government's guidelines," despite the fact that the Shas Party - without which the government falls - has been granted permission to vote against the plan.
Peretz further said that there is "a clear-cut democratic majority among Israel's citizens and in the Knesset in favor of the plan." Of the Knesset's 120 members, the parties clearly in favor of the plan have 63: Kadima (29), Labor (19), Meretz (5) - and the Arabs (10).
* Yoram Turbowitz, who conducted the coalition negotiations on behalf of Kadima, which some view as a failure in that the coalition numbers only 67 MKs, with both Yisrael Beiteinu and United Torah Judaism on the outside;
* Ariel Sharon's top aide Dov Weisglass;
* foreign affairs advisor Shalom Turjeman.
They are meeting with top U.S. Administration officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, in preparation for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's first meeting with President Bush since taking office. The summit is to take place next Tuesday, May 23.
Olmert wishes to coordinate his "convergence plan" - a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria involving the uprooting of some 70,000 Jews from their homes - with the United States. Olmert has said he will first attempt to negotiate with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, and that only if this fails will he move unilaterally. The rub is that the meaning of the word "fails" in this context is obtuse - and that the U.S. and Israel are most likely not at all in agreement on it.
Arutz-7 analyst Haggai Huberman notes that while the U.S. cannot oppose an Israeli withdrawal, it does object to Israel determining its own final borders unilaterally.
Jerusalem diplomatic sources told Huberman that one of the main unanswered questions at present is who will determine when the negotiations with the PA have been exhausted. What may appear to Olmert to be the end of negotiations and a green light to start withdrawing, may appear to the U.S. to be merely an obstacle to be overcome.
Olmert is not interested in talking with Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader who chairs the Palestinian Authority - probably because he sees no point in negotiating with a man who heads the opposition in the PA. However, Olmert is being pressured to do so from many quarters: Abbas himself, Olmert's own Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and the United States.
Olmert can rebuff Peretz, as he did this week by blatantly ignoring Peretz's proposal to send 50 million shekels of humanitarian aid to the Hamas Authority. He cannot do so as easily with the U.S., however. It is likely that only after Olmert meets with Abbas, presents him with an outline for a permanent arrangement, and has him [Abbas] turn it down outright, will he be able to say he has "exhausted" negotiations with the PA.
In a speech at a Movement for Quality in Government event yesterday, Peretz said, "I believe that Olmert will make a sincere, genuine and serious effort to try to reach an agreed-upon arrangement with the Palestinians before he makes any decision on a unilateral plan."
Peretz also said that the convergence plan stands at the "center of the government's guidelines," despite the fact that the Shas Party - without which the government falls - has been granted permission to vote against the plan.
Peretz further said that there is "a clear-cut democratic majority among Israel's citizens and in the Knesset in favor of the plan." Of the Knesset's 120 members, the parties clearly in favor of the plan have 63: Kadima (29), Labor (19), Meretz (5) - and the Arabs (10).