This past week, senior aides of Olmert and Abbas met to lay the groundwork for a formal meeting between the two leaders.
The expected meeting is partially due to pressure exerted by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. During her visit last week, Rice called on Olmert to help improve Abbas's image among PA residents. The meeting between Olmert and Abbas may take place sometime after the conclusion of the weeklong Sukkot festival.
Olmert aides Yoram Turbovicz and Shalom Turjeman, and Abbas aides Rafik el-Husseini and Saeb Erekat attempted to set the preliminary conditions for a formal meeting, but failed to agree on terms. Further preliminary talks will most likely take place later this week.
Abbas’s aides have requested the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, as an Israeli gesture of goodwill.
Israel wants any formal meeting to take place without preconditions. Furthermore, Israel has stated it will not release any prisoners until IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit is returned. Shalit was kidnapped in an Arab terror raid across the Gaza border on June 25.
Formal talks would likely boost the status of Abbas, who is currently unable to maintain any sense of decorum within the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh addressed a gathering of several thousand Arabs in Gaza on Friday to muster support for his struggling Hamas party. Last week, fighting between Hamas and its rival Fatah faction spilled out on to the streets with over a dozen killed and several dozen wounded.
Fighting broke out due to the suffering PA economy, and the failure of Hamas to join together with Fatah for the formation of a unity government. A government with both Haniyeh and Abbas, head of the Fatah faction, would most likely create the conditions for renewed international aid to the PA.
Foreign aid had been restrained following the recent election of Hamas, an internationally recognized terror organization, to legislative power within the PA.
Abbas, successor to Yasser Arafat as chairman of the PA, has required that Hamas recognize the State of Israel before any unity government can be formed between the rival factions.
Haniyeh has consistently refused Abbas’ demand, stating during Friday’s rally, "The government and the Hamas movement will not recognize Israel and will not give up any Palestinian principle, including the land of our fathers and grandfathers."
Haniyeh did express a willingness to reach a hudna, or a long-term cease fire which serves a period for rearming, with Israel, but only after an independent Palestinian state is created along the 1967 border. Furthermore, a shrunken Israel would then have to grant right of return to Arabs who previously fled to Syria and Lebanon.
In the middle of his speech at a Gaza soccer stadium, Haniyeh fainted due to dehydration, but came to and finished his speech after resting for several minutes. Haniyeh is fasting, as are many Arabs during the Muslim month of Ramadan. Haniyeh gave the address standing in front of a large picture of exiled Hamas terror chieftain Khaled Meshal.
During the address, Haniyeh warned that any efforts by Abbas to bring down the Hamas government would fail, and urged Abbas to continue talks toward the formation of a unity government.
In response to Haniyeh’s remarks, Fatah parliamentary faction leader Azzam al-Ahmed called for new legislative elections within the Palestinian Authority.
"How can one authority have two heads blaming each other?" Ahmed stated during a press conference in Ramallah. "If so, we must turn again to the people. Any country whose government reaches a dead end calls for early parliamentary elections. Those who trust themselves do not fear the people.”
The expected meeting is partially due to pressure exerted by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. During her visit last week, Rice called on Olmert to help improve Abbas's image among PA residents. The meeting between Olmert and Abbas may take place sometime after the conclusion of the weeklong Sukkot festival.
Olmert aides Yoram Turbovicz and Shalom Turjeman, and Abbas aides Rafik el-Husseini and Saeb Erekat attempted to set the preliminary conditions for a formal meeting, but failed to agree on terms. Further preliminary talks will most likely take place later this week.
Abbas’s aides have requested the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, as an Israeli gesture of goodwill.
Israel wants any formal meeting to take place without preconditions. Furthermore, Israel has stated it will not release any prisoners until IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit is returned. Shalit was kidnapped in an Arab terror raid across the Gaza border on June 25.
Formal talks would likely boost the status of Abbas, who is currently unable to maintain any sense of decorum within the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh addressed a gathering of several thousand Arabs in Gaza on Friday to muster support for his struggling Hamas party. Last week, fighting between Hamas and its rival Fatah faction spilled out on to the streets with over a dozen killed and several dozen wounded.
Fighting broke out due to the suffering PA economy, and the failure of Hamas to join together with Fatah for the formation of a unity government. A government with both Haniyeh and Abbas, head of the Fatah faction, would most likely create the conditions for renewed international aid to the PA.
Foreign aid had been restrained following the recent election of Hamas, an internationally recognized terror organization, to legislative power within the PA.
Abbas, successor to Yasser Arafat as chairman of the PA, has required that Hamas recognize the State of Israel before any unity government can be formed between the rival factions.
Haniyeh has consistently refused Abbas’ demand, stating during Friday’s rally, "The government and the Hamas movement will not recognize Israel and will not give up any Palestinian principle, including the land of our fathers and grandfathers."
Haniyeh did express a willingness to reach a hudna, or a long-term cease fire which serves a period for rearming, with Israel, but only after an independent Palestinian state is created along the 1967 border. Furthermore, a shrunken Israel would then have to grant right of return to Arabs who previously fled to Syria and Lebanon.
In the middle of his speech at a Gaza soccer stadium, Haniyeh fainted due to dehydration, but came to and finished his speech after resting for several minutes. Haniyeh is fasting, as are many Arabs during the Muslim month of Ramadan. Haniyeh gave the address standing in front of a large picture of exiled Hamas terror chieftain Khaled Meshal.
During the address, Haniyeh warned that any efforts by Abbas to bring down the Hamas government would fail, and urged Abbas to continue talks toward the formation of a unity government.
In response to Haniyeh’s remarks, Fatah parliamentary faction leader Azzam al-Ahmed called for new legislative elections within the Palestinian Authority.
"How can one authority have two heads blaming each other?" Ahmed stated during a press conference in Ramallah. "If so, we must turn again to the people. Any country whose government reaches a dead end calls for early parliamentary elections. Those who trust themselves do not fear the people.”