PA and Israeli officials are to decide Friday whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will meet Sunday in Ramallah.
The two men are set to get together for the first of the bi-weekly meetings they agreed to during a recent shuttle diplomacy visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is slated to return to the region next month.
Abbas’ Ramallah headquarters, located in PA territory in Samaria, is the apparent first choice, depending on security considerations. Previous meetings have been held in Jerusalem.
The two leaders are expected to discuss PA demands for the release of terrorists and prisoners in return for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Other topics on the agenda reportedly include the continuing violations of the Gaza ceasefire by terrorists and smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
The status of Jerusalem is not expected to appear on the agenda. Nor is the so-called "right of return" – the Arab demand that millions of descendants of those who fled the Jewish State during the 1948 War of Independence be allowed to immigrate to Israel from the countries in which they live.
Abbas is scheduled to begin a tour of Jordan and European countries the day after his meeting with Olmert. The PA Chairman is expected to continue his efforts to convince world leaders to back Arab demands for the “right of return.”
The demand for the "right of return" is the most contentious clause of the Saudi Arabian 2002 Peace Plan, which also calls for Israel to give up all the land that was restored after the 1967 Six-Day War, including Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights, the Western Wall and all of the Old City of Jerusalem. While right-wing and religious Israelis tend to reject the territorial concessions as well as the "right of return," even most left-wing and secular Israelis find the "right of return" hard to swallow.