There are conflicting reports this week regarding the continuation of Palestinian Authority-Israel negotiations, as well as what the goal of those negotiations is.
An Egyptian diplomat quoted by the Israeli Maariv newspaper Tuesday said that Egypt and Israel have been 
Egypt and Israel have been working for a week to develop a new agreement with Gaza terror groups.
working for a week to develop a new agreement with Gaza terror groups. The objective of the talks, he explained, is to bring quiet along the length of the Hamas-controlled half of the PA.
The diplomat claimed that the current relative quiet in the area is a result of Egyptian pressure on the terror groups to come to a new arrangement and not a result of Israel's recent Operation Cast Lead counter-terror operation. He added that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is helping Defense Minister Ehud Barak promote an agreement within the new Israeli administration.
According to a report by the London-based Arabic newspaper A-Sharq Al-Awsat, however, Hamas sees the recent Israeli decision to dismiss negotiator Ofer Dekel as an "escalation" against Gaza. The Hamas source cited by the newspaper said, "It will become clear to [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu, as it became clear to his predecessor [Ehud] Olmert, that it will be a mistake to rely on military might in this case in particular and in dealing with Hamas in general."
The Netanyahu government is reassessing the effort to obtain the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit from Gaza's Hamas regime. There are initial unconfirmed reports that the prime minister wants to start negotiations from "square one," while Hamas wants to renew them from the point where they were broken off just before the change in Israeli governments. However, there are no indications that the new government will refuse categorically to deal with the Hamas terrorist organization.
In a monthly briefing on Monday, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe said that the lack of a Hamas-Israel ceasefire is one reason for the failure of efforts to reach a comprehensive Israel-PA agreement. Other reasons he cited include the internal conflict between the two halves of the PA - that ruled by Hamas from Gaza and that ruled by Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah - as well as Israel's construction of housing units for Jews in Judea and Samaria.
Addressing the U.N. Security Council at its New York headquarters, Pascoe said, "For the sake of the people of the region, there must be peace and not simply further process."