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Occupied Jerusalem: Israelis and Palestinians on Tuesday
welcomed President George W. Bush's proposal for a regional peace conference, but expressed vastly different visions for what the gathering would produce.
Palestinian officials said they hoped the meeting would
jump-start peace talks aimed at creating an independent
Palestinian state. Israel said it is premature to talk
about a final peace settlement.
On Monday, Bush called for a peace conference in the fall
aimed at restarting peace talks between the two sides,
calling it a "moment of choice" in the Middle East. US officials expressed hope that Arab countries, including
moderate nations that do not have diplomatic relations with
Israel, would attend.
The exact date and location of the conference remain
unknown, as does its agenda and participants. Amid such
uncertainty, Israeli and Palestinian analysts were
skeptical about whether the meeting would accomplish
anything concrete.
The gathering is aimed at giving an international boost of
support to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,
whose forces were recently routed by the Hamas militant
group in the Gaza Strip. With international backing, Abbas
now heads an emergency government based in the West Bank.
Hamas remains isolated in Gaza.
Palestinian officials said Bush spoke to Abbas by
telephone for 40 minutes on Monday to discuss the
conference.
"We welcome this call, particularly in light of the
re-emphasised US commitment toward a meaningful peace
process, that leads to an end of the Israeli occupation and
the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,"
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told reporters. "The call for an internationalconference to help in pushing this process forward."
Saeb Erekat, a top aide to Abbas, said it was important
that the conference move beyond recent confidence-building
steps and start carrying out Bush's vision of creating a
Palestinian state alongside Israel.
"The best thing to do is focus on substance at this
meeting," he said. "We need this conference to focus on
implementation, the transformation of words to deeds.
That's what will restore credibility to the peace
process."
In Gaza, Hamas rejected the Bush proposal, calling it a
"crusade" against the Palestinian people. Isolated in
Gaza, and facing a crackdown in the West Bank, it remains
unclear how or whether Hamas would try to undermine the
conference.
Yehiya Moussa, a Hamas lawmaker, said he didn't trust to
the Americans to be fair brokers in the region and treated
the Arab world "as if they were private kingdoms for their
puppet dictators."
"We don't accept Bush's flagrant interference in the
Palestinian internal affairs with the aim to drive a wedge
among the Palestinian people," he said.
In another development, the Israeli Haaretz daily reported
that the new "Quartet" envoy, former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, will arrive in Israel on Monday, his
first trip since taking the post.
In Israel's latest gesture to Abbas, a ministerial
committee on Tuesday approved plans for the release of 256
Palestinian prisoners. The release is expected to take
place on Friday. Israel also recently has channeled more
than $100 million in frozen Palestinian tax
funds to Abbas and offered amnesty to dozens of Fatah
gunmen who renounced violence.
Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
also welcomed the conference, saying it provided an
opportunity to bring together all those who are truly
interested in peace in the Middle East.
But she said it is too early to talk about full-fledged
peace talks as long as Palestinian violence against Israel
continues. A final settlement would require agreement on
such contentious issues as final borders, the fate of
millions of Palestinian refugees and the status of disputed
Jerusalem.
"The call by Bush could or could not be a transformation, as we are used to hearing talk of initiatives, proposals of conferences that most of the time achieve nothing," wrote the main Palestinian daily Al Quds.
"We have yet to see if this time is different or if it is a scenario that we have already seen," it said.
Israeli observers were even harsher.
"The old-new presidential vision which was outlined yesterday will end just like its predecessors," wrote the Maariv tabloid, Israel's second-largest daily. "Forceful declarations, high hopes, a grandiose plan and in the end it all comes to nothing but shattered hopes and despair."
The top-selling Yediot Aharonot said a comparison of Bush's speech on Monday and the first major one he gave on the conflict five years ago showed "that peace in the Middle East is like the horizon: the nearer you get, the further away it is."
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