.bmp)
.bmp)
JERUSALEM-Israeli and Palestinian leaders plan to meet ahead of this week's visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to try to jumpstart peace talks that a right-wing minister said could break up Israel's coalition government.The chief negotiators-Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurie-will meet on Monday to try to finalize an agreement setting out the structure for final-status talks, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are likely to meet on Tuesday, one day before Bush arrives for a three-day visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank, the officials said.Heightening tensions ahead of Bush's first visit as president, Olmert said on Sunday that Israeli troops would escalate attacks on militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip in response to continued cross-border rocket fire.Hours before Olmert spoke to his cabinet in Jerusalem, an Israeli ground force pushed into the central Gaza Strip and shot dead a Palestinian whom medical officials identified as an 18-year-old civilian. Two militants were also wounded.Olmert said Defense Minister Ehud Barak had ordered security forces "to escalate Israel's actions" against militants in Gaza. Despite Palestinian protests, Olmert said Israel will continue to operate against militants in the occupied West Bank, where Abbas holds sway."The most important thing for the Israelis now is to stop the incursions, to stop the attacks," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
THREAT
At a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November, Olmert and Abbas set the goal of trying to negotiate a statehood agreement before Bush leaves office in January 2009. But it is unclear whether the leaders have enough political clout to close a deal, let alone implement one.Since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June, Abbas wields little authority beyond the West Bank.Olmert was weakened by the 2006 war in Lebanon and could face new calls to resign at the end of the month when a commission of inquiry issues its final report on Israel's deficiencies in the conflict with Hezbollah guerrillas.Olmert has said he will not step down.One of Olmert's coalition partners, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, renewed his threat on Sunday to pull his right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party out of the government if Israeli and Palestinian negotiators begin final-status talks on borders, and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees."Any start of negotiations on the core issues ... any attempt or removal of settlements or outposts, as far as we are concerned, will force us to quit immediately," Lieberman told Israel Radio.Olmert and Abbas last met in Jerusalem on December 27. Talks have so far been bogged down by disputes over Israeli building in Jewish settlements near Jerusalem.Olmert sought last week to ease the impasse by issuing orders to his cabinet barring new construction work, building planning and occupancy tenders at West Bank settlements without his approval.But Olmert has not called off plans to build hundreds of new homes in an area near Jerusalem known to Israelis as Har Homa and to the Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim. Construction there has been the main source of disagreement with the Palestinians and has drawn fire from the Bush administration.Under the proposed negotiating scheme, Olmert and Abbas would continue to meet about twice a month to make decisions on specific issues, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.Livni and Qurie, backed by teams of experts, would conduct final-status negotiations, largely in secret. Working groups would be assigned specific issues, such as water or economic cooperation, the officials said.
As in the days of Noah....
