Abbas looks to Bush to bring Israel to heel, marvels Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas met with President Bush in Washington Thursday in a desperate effort to save the American-backed peace process from the danger of collapse. Abbas is reportedly "gravely concerned " that the prospects of reaching a breakthrough in peace talks with Israel before the expiration of Bush's term in the White House are very slim. Palestinian sources in Ramallah told Al-Ahram Weekly that Abbas urged the Bush administration to exert "a real and meaningful pressure" on Israel in order to ensure the drafting of a final status agreement before the end of 2008. The PA leader asked Bush to push for a detailed draft agreement that would lead to a permanent settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as the creation of a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Israel prefers to reach a "declaration of principles" that would lay out general guidelines for a final status solution with the Palestinians. But the PA is not interested in another vaguely-worded declaration (the Oslo Agreement was a declaration of principles) which would give Israel more time to "create facts" on the ground in the West Bank. "A declaration of principles would be meaningless in the absence of agreement on hardcore issues such as Jerusalem, the settlements and the refugees," said Abdullah Abdullah, a Fatah lawmaker and former director-general of the Palestinian Foreign Ministry. Abdullah said "another declaration of principles would be a waste of time because we already have one, the Oslo Accords. What we want and seek is a framework agreement covering all aspects of the conflict. We want to know for example when our prisoners will be freed from Israeli jails and detention camps." The Palestinian leader will also complain to Bush about Israel's failure to implement key clauses of the Quartet-sponsored roadmap for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Under the roadmap plan, Israel is committed to removing hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank as well as freeze Jewish settlement expansion. Palestinians and peace-watch groups in the occupied territories accuse Israel of reneging on these pledges. They argue that Israel has kept the vast bulk of its physical barriers in the West Bank and that only a few roadblocks of secondary significance have been removed. Israel has also embarked on a fresh spate of settlement expansion in the West Bank, especially in East Jerusalem. The PA repeatedly complained to Washington in this regard, but the Bush administration has failed or refuses to exert pressure on the Israeli government to halt settlement expansion on occupied Arab land. Israel and the PA have been holding intensive talks for more than a year, but without reaching a breakthrough, especially with regard to the final status issues. Abbas is under tremendous pressure from Palestinian public opinion to reach a dignified peace agreement or quit. "The Palestinian people can't continue to watch this game of make-believe for much longer. If Abbas thinks that a peace agreement with Israel is not possible, he should have the courage to tell the people the truth," said a Palestinian official. "The Palestinians are mentally exhausted by this peace process." Apart from mental exhaustion caused by protracted but futile talks with Israel, Abbas sees that his political career and credibility as PA president and Fatah leader will be seriously compromised if he fails to get Israel to agree to end its 41-year-old occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Azmi Shuebi, a former Palestinian cabinet minister, said, "I think that Abu Mazen [Abbas] will most likely resign if a peace agreement or at least a draft peace agreement is not reached by the end this year." Shuebi told the Weekly that Abbas was receiving "discouraging reports from Ahmed Qurei about numerous rounds of talks, some secret, he had been holding with his Israeli counterparts. "We know that they are very slow and making very little progress." Hamas has repeatedly criticised PA-Israeli talks as "lacking credibility" because of Israel's refusal to end its military occupation. Olmert is not in a position to take far-reaching steps towards a peace agreement with the PA, e.g., stopping settlement expansion, let alone dismantling existing settlements. The ultra- Orthodox Haredi party Shas, which represents religious Jews from the Middle East, has threatened to leave the Olmert government if "the subject of Jerusalem is discussed with the Palestinians". Shas has been behind recently-announced plans to build thousands of settler units in East Jerusalem. The fundamentalist party is vehemently opposed to ending the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem as well as allowing a significant number of Palestinian refugees to be repatriated back to their former villages and homes in what is now Israel. Some Israeli columnists, like Uri Avnery, believe the Olmert government is not really interested in reaching a genuine and lasting peace with the Palestinians and that the ongoing peace talks with the PA are only a show for the international community. Olmert and other Israeli leaders consider President Bush a "lame duck", relieving Israel of the need to make genuine moves towards peace with the Palestinians. Israel hopes that the American elections and the subsequent transition period, will give it time to create yet more facts on the ground in the West Bank, supposedly putting Israel in a more advantageous negotiating position. However, the PA is unlikely to accept being dragged yet again into a new and uncertain episode of open-ended talks with Israel which Palestinians realise would be just another exercise of futility.
