The three-way summit organized by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice scheduled for February 19th is set to become the first step in a series of talks that Arabs hope will result in the establishment of an independent PA state.
But a unity deal signed Friday between Fatah, chaired by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, led by PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, has given Israel reason to pause as the government considers the pact's implications for Israel.
A government source told the Reuters news agency, "One option under serious discussion is severing contacts with Abu Mazen," using the nom de guerre of the Fatah leader.
Olmert told the cabinet during its weekly meeting on Sunday, however, that since the new PA government has not yet been formed, he saw no reason not to attend the three-way summit.
The new unity deal does not meet demands by the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers (U.S., Russia, United Nations and European Union) that any PA government must formally acknowledge the State of Israel, renounce terrorism and uphold pacts with the Jewish State signed by previous PA governments.
Moreoever, the Hamas terrorist organization continues to stand firm on its vow never to acknowlege Israel's right to exist and to destroy the Jewish State. The only compromise included in the unity pact signed in Mecca was a grudging agreement to allow Abbas to go ahead with negotiations with Israel and an oblique reference to "respecting" - not "fulfilling" - past agreements with Israel.
An Israeli defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters, "Things are really in the air," saying that Olmert might break off the talks if the new PA government does not accept the Quartet's demands. Miri Eisen, spokeswoman for the prime minister, declined to comment on what she called a "hypothetical situation."
Abbas told reporters, "We have already agreed with [American Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice that we must go to [a] final status settlement, and negotiations over borders, settlement, refugees and statehood."
The U.S. State Department denied an Israeli request to cancel the summit, saying the Fatah-Hamas deal had created a more complex situation than had existed when the meeting was planned. According to the International Middle East Media Center website, self-described as a "joint Palestinian-International effort," Washington flatly refused to call it off.
Rice told Israeli officials that the U.S. still backs negotiations on temporary borders for a new Arab state, but opposes an immediate final status solution.
Abbas warned Israel that it must accept the unity agreement. It is a "Palestinian issue and an Arab issue and the Israelis must deal with this fait accompli," he said, according to the official Jordanian Petra news agency. The PA Fatah leader was in Egypt for a meeting with top officials there before traveling to Amman later in the day for talks with King Abdullah II and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Israeli government officials have not yet decided whether to accept the PA deal as the "fait accompli" Abbas claims it to be. Former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud) slammed the Olmert administration for "stammering" on the Mecca agreement, saying the international community cannot be expected to reject it if Israel does not itself take a clear stand on the matter. Other officials are less certain, and an official statement of Israel's position on the unity deal has not been issued.
While a three-way summit is still in the offing, attacks by Gaza terrorists aimed at Israel continue unabated. By mid-afternoon Monday, six Kassam rocket attacks had already been fired at Jewish communities in the western Negev by terrorists in northern Gaza. At least 19 missiles were launched at Israel in the past seven days alone.
Nor is it a done deal that the violent year-long struggle between Hamas and Fatah for control of the PA government will end – the main objective of the unity agreement brokered by an impatient Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, who summoned both factions to Mecca last week.
Hamas terrorists kidnapped a former Fatah prosecutor on Monday, the first reported abduction since the unity agreement was signed. Resentment and a thirst for revenge on both sides also continues to simmer in Gaza, according to a report by The Associated Press.
One slogan brandished by a PA resident bitterly read, "The president's people [Fatah] are destroyers." A spray-painted warning on a wall threatened in response, "The Presidential Guard [Abbas' Force 17 security detail] will show no mercy."
A Fatah leader based in Gaza City, Khamis Bakr, said he would seek revenge for the death of his 16-year-old nephew Mohammed, a bystander who was killed during a gunfight with Hamas loyalists last week, regardless of the deal struck by his faction's leader.
"We are happy with the agreement," he said Saturday. "We hope that our son will be the last victim. But the family still wants the blood of Mohammed to be avenged. Hamas has to hand over the killers, either to the family or to a court."
Bakr would not say what he would do if Hamas did not comply with his family's demands.
But a unity deal signed Friday between Fatah, chaired by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, led by PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, has given Israel reason to pause as the government considers the pact's implications for Israel.
A government source told the Reuters news agency, "One option under serious discussion is severing contacts with Abu Mazen," using the nom de guerre of the Fatah leader.
Olmert told the cabinet during its weekly meeting on Sunday, however, that since the new PA government has not yet been formed, he saw no reason not to attend the three-way summit.
The new unity deal does not meet demands by the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers (U.S., Russia, United Nations and European Union) that any PA government must formally acknowledge the State of Israel, renounce terrorism and uphold pacts with the Jewish State signed by previous PA governments.
Moreoever, the Hamas terrorist organization continues to stand firm on its vow never to acknowlege Israel's right to exist and to destroy the Jewish State. The only compromise included in the unity pact signed in Mecca was a grudging agreement to allow Abbas to go ahead with negotiations with Israel and an oblique reference to "respecting" - not "fulfilling" - past agreements with Israel.
An Israeli defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters, "Things are really in the air," saying that Olmert might break off the talks if the new PA government does not accept the Quartet's demands. Miri Eisen, spokeswoman for the prime minister, declined to comment on what she called a "hypothetical situation."
Abbas told reporters, "We have already agreed with [American Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice that we must go to [a] final status settlement, and negotiations over borders, settlement, refugees and statehood."
The U.S. State Department denied an Israeli request to cancel the summit, saying the Fatah-Hamas deal had created a more complex situation than had existed when the meeting was planned. According to the International Middle East Media Center website, self-described as a "joint Palestinian-International effort," Washington flatly refused to call it off.
Rice told Israeli officials that the U.S. still backs negotiations on temporary borders for a new Arab state, but opposes an immediate final status solution.
Abbas warned Israel that it must accept the unity agreement. It is a "Palestinian issue and an Arab issue and the Israelis must deal with this fait accompli," he said, according to the official Jordanian Petra news agency. The PA Fatah leader was in Egypt for a meeting with top officials there before traveling to Amman later in the day for talks with King Abdullah II and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Israeli government officials have not yet decided whether to accept the PA deal as the "fait accompli" Abbas claims it to be. Former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud) slammed the Olmert administration for "stammering" on the Mecca agreement, saying the international community cannot be expected to reject it if Israel does not itself take a clear stand on the matter. Other officials are less certain, and an official statement of Israel's position on the unity deal has not been issued.
While a three-way summit is still in the offing, attacks by Gaza terrorists aimed at Israel continue unabated. By mid-afternoon Monday, six Kassam rocket attacks had already been fired at Jewish communities in the western Negev by terrorists in northern Gaza. At least 19 missiles were launched at Israel in the past seven days alone.
Nor is it a done deal that the violent year-long struggle between Hamas and Fatah for control of the PA government will end – the main objective of the unity agreement brokered by an impatient Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, who summoned both factions to Mecca last week.
Hamas terrorists kidnapped a former Fatah prosecutor on Monday, the first reported abduction since the unity agreement was signed. Resentment and a thirst for revenge on both sides also continues to simmer in Gaza, according to a report by The Associated Press.
One slogan brandished by a PA resident bitterly read, "The president's people [Fatah] are destroyers." A spray-painted warning on a wall threatened in response, "The Presidential Guard [Abbas' Force 17 security detail] will show no mercy."
A Fatah leader based in Gaza City, Khamis Bakr, said he would seek revenge for the death of his 16-year-old nephew Mohammed, a bystander who was killed during a gunfight with Hamas loyalists last week, regardless of the deal struck by his faction's leader.
"We are happy with the agreement," he said Saturday. "We hope that our son will be the last victim. But the family still wants the blood of Mohammed to be avenged. Hamas has to hand over the killers, either to the family or to a court."
Bakr would not say what he would do if Hamas did not comply with his family's demands.