Colin Powell's first trip to Israel and the occupied territories in 18 months saw him reading the same old script, writes Graham Usher from Jerusalem A winter storm greeted Colin Powell on Monday as he made his last trip to Israel and the occupied territories as US secretary of state. His was the first visit in a string of Western foreign ministers, all eager to seize "the new opportunity to advance the peace process" caused by the death of Yasser Arafat. Unlike so often in the past, Powell realised the limited goals set for him. He won a commitment from his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, that "Israel will do everything in its power to ensure the smooth running" of the Palestinian presidential elections on 9 January, including arrangements to enable the 200,000 or so Palestinians in Israeli occupied East Jerusalem to vote. Few Palestinians believe it. The night before Powell arrived an Israeli undercover squad killed three Palestinians in Beitunia, near Ramallah. The three -- Mohamed Liftawi, Salam Yaqoub and Nasser Jawahra -- were all members of the Palestinian security forces, Fatah and its military arm, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. According to the Israeli version all three were killed in a "shoot out" resisting arrest. According to eyewitness accounts compiled by three Palestinian human rights monitors the three were first caught in a road ambush by the squad and then killed in a hail of machine gun fire while trapped in their car. At least one of them, Liftawi, had found sanctuary for the last two years in Arafat's Muqataa compound but fled with his leader's flight to Paris. Two weeks later Liftawi was dead, and the meaning will not be lost on a single member of Fatah's militia: with Arafat there was protection; without him there isn't. This at least was how the incident was read by the new "interim" Palestinian leadership. PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei reportedly raised the Beitunia killings with Powell in Jericho, warning that Israel's assassinations policy constituted "the biggest threat to the continuation of Palestinian rule and our ability to hold elections on 9 January". It also renders futile their efforts to achieve a new Palestinian ceasefire ahead of the poll. Powell offered nothing except vague hope and old demands. "What we really need is for the Palestinian side in this new era to speak out clearly against terrorism, and to gather in all of the elements of the Palestinian community, and make it clear to them that it is time to stop all incitement, to stop all violence. If they do that, if they also create institutions that can impose that policy, then we have, in effect, a ceasefire. And, what I have heard from my Israeli colleagues ... is that they will act in kind." Neither did Messrs Abbas and Qurei receive much joy over what has long been their cardinal policy demand, old and new era alike: that Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the interior of Gaza be negotiated with the PA and integrated into the long dormant roadmap. The most the Israelis would offer was some kind of security coordination prior to the withdrawal and economic coordination in the aftermath. But political negotiations would still hinge on the PA "taking steps against terror", Sharon told Powell. Nor was there any sign of other "good will" gestures such as a release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, including Fatah West Bank chief Marwan Barghouti. This is a move many Palestinians believe is crucial if Abbas and Qurei's leadership is to become anchored in a nationalist constituency and legitimacy. It is not going to happen on Sharon's watch. "Barghouti was sentenced to life, and he should stay there since he is responsible for the killing and murder of so many Israelis," said Shalom, with Powell standing by. The new Palestinian leadership cannot be blamed for Israel's intransigence on these matters, or for American complicity with it. But there are other issues where it is receiving criticism -- above all the decision to separate the presidential elections on 9 January from new parliamentary ones which, it is promised, will happen "before the middle of next year". Officially the line from PA ministers is that there is not enough time to organise a parliamentary poll -- a bogus reason in the eyes of many Palestinian analysts since registration for both elections is the same and all of the Palestinian factions have said they are ready and would prefer simultaneous presidential and parliamentary polls on 9 January. This includes Hamas, which says it will not contest the presidential poll but is signalling strongly that it will run in some form for parliament. Unofficially -- admit PA sources -- the obstruction is coming from Fatah and especially its Central Committee which fears a suffrage so soon after Arafat's death and with Hamas riding so high in the polls. But it is myopic, says Palestinian analyst Khalil Shikaki, not least for the cross-factional dialogue to achieve a Palestinian truce. "The Palestinian leadership wants to hold presidential elections instead of legislative elections, which I think is a mistake," he told the Palestinian-Israeli Bitter-lemons website on 22 November. "It makes it a lot more difficult to gain internal consensus on a ceasefire. Those opposed to presidential elections or who might not gain from presidential elections, might fear there is a hidden agenda on the part of the PA to avoid legislative elections. They may make it impossible to hold elections by refusing to abide by a ceasefire".
