Though even Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz says Ehud Olmert has no legal mandate to conclude a peace agreement as lame-duck Prime Minister, secret talks to this end continue.  So reports Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily, based on “multiple informed Israeli and Palestinian sources.”

The negotiators' are hoping to conclude a major, though not complete, agreement before the end of US President George W. Bush's term two months from now, on Jan. 20.  Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas is also expected to leave office around that time, if elections between Hamas and Fatah are held on January 10, as currently scheduled.

Elections in Israel are scheduled for shortly afterwards, on February 10.

"The sources, including a senior Palestinian negotiator, said the aim is to reach a series of understandings to be guaranteed by the U.S. that would result in an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the vast majority of the West Bank,” Klein reports.

Livni is Opposed

One of Israel’s three leading prime ministerial candidates – Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Kadima, who has been heading the negotiations for Israel for the past year – is actually opposed to reaching an incomplete agreement that leaves certain issues unresolved.  Both she and Abbas have long agreed that “nothing is considered agreed until everything is agreed.” 

Some say that this is because of the lessons she learned from previous partial agreements, which led to the Oslo War and over 1,300 Jewish deaths.  Others say that Livni is concerned that an agreement on Jerusalem or refugees before elections would further harm her prospects among center-right voters.

Jerusalem, Too

Though final-status talks on Jerusalem are not being considered at this time, the secret talks currently underway also deal with granting permission to the PA to open official institutions in Jerusalem in the meanwhile.

An agreement might allow the PA to open scores of offices and institutions in eastern Jerusalem, such as the building it long used as its headquarters, Orient House.  Thousands of documents captured by Israel from Orient House after it was closed down several years ago proved that the offices were used to directly finance terrorism.

Teams of Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been quietly meeting regularly over the past few weeks, Klein reports. There is no expectation of concluding a deal on Jerusalem or Arab refugees; the talks are concentrating on reaching an agreement emphasizing borders, including a pledged Israeli evacuation of the vast majority of Judea and Samaria - the strategic West Bank, which borders central Israeli population centers.

American Intervention

A PA source told WorldNetDaily that the U.S. is actively desirous of an Israeli withdrawal from almost all the areas it liberated in 1967, and to this end is closely monitoring Jewish settlement activities there.  Israeli forces have evacuated and destroyed several start-up neighborhoods in recent weeks.