JERUSALEM: Top Israeli Cabinet ministers declared the Gaza Strip an enemy entity on Wednesday, a move likely to cloud US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice s visit to the region on a peacemaking mission because it paved the way to cutting off vital supplies of electricity, water and fuel to the coastal territory. Rice arrived on Wednesday to mediate progress on key issues dividing Israel and the Palestinians before a US-sponsored peace gathering. But even before she landed, Palestinian officials said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would ask her not to set a firm date for the peace conference until it is clear he and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert can agree upon a joint statement setting out their goals. President Abbas will ask Rice tomorrow not to set a specific date for the conference until they see the possibilities of having an agreement with Israel, an official in Abbas office said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because Abbas and Rice had not yet met. The conference is tentatively scheduled for Washington in November. Western powers have concluded Abbas has a freer hand to reach a final accord with Israel now that he has expelled Hamas from power after they seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. Abbas has set up a new government in the West Bank, headed by the US-backed Salam Fayyad. The Israeli Security Cabinet s declaration of Gaza as an enemy entity would be the most severe of the retaliatory measures Israel has taken recently against rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. Members of the Security Cabinet, a group of top political and defense officials, said Wednesday s vote authorized the government to cut off supplies to Gaza. However, they said there was no decision on when or whether the cutoff would actually begin. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed. Gaza is almost entirely dependent on Israeli suppliers for power, water and fuel, and a cutoff would draw international condemnation. Israel hopes the measures will put pressure on Hamas to stop the near-daily rocket fire. The objective is to weaken Hamas, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Wednesday s meeting, according to one participant. Israel s current policy of airstrikes and brief ground incursions has been ineffective. Barak also said Israel was moving closer to a large-scale military operation in Gaza - an option that has not halted rocket fire in the past and would likely mean heavy casualties on both sides. Every day that passes brings us closer to an operation in Gaza, Barak was quoted as saying. He said an array of options would be considered, however, before a major invasion. The crude rockets have killed 12 people in southern Israel in the past seven years, injured dozens more and disrupted daily life in the region, which Israel evacuated two years ago. Hamas control of Gaza will burden Abbas as he and Olmert try to move toward a final accord. The first step is hammering out a joint platform on the most contentious issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before the Washington conference - final borders, the status of Jerusalem and a solution for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Rice has said that meeting must be substantive. The Palestinians hope the gathering will bring a solid framework for a final agreement but Israel wants to retain greater flexibility with a more general statement of goals. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries say they won t attend the conference unless they re convinced of real progress toward working out a final accord that would entail the establishment of a Palestinian state. On her way to the region Wednesday, Rice said she hoped the participants in the conference would not only sit and talk and talk and talk. It s extremely important from our point of view that it be serious and substantive, Rice told reporters aboard her plane. We can t simply continue to say that we want a two-state solution - we ve got to start to move toward one. Rice was slated to meet Olmert and his top ministers Wednesday, and with the Palestinians on Thursday. Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said the prime minister s talks with Rice would focus on progress made in his recent meetings with Abbas and on details about the international conference, such as who will participate. Olmert was to present Rice with an Israeli plan to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank, Israeli officials said. The removal of two dozen dirt barriers that block villages is one of several Israeli gestures to bolster Abbas against Hamas. Ahead of Rice s arrival, an Olmert confidant released his plan for dividing Jerusalem with the Palestinians. Sharing the holy city is a major demand of Palestinians, who see the eastern sector, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war, as capital of their future state. Vice Premier Haim Ramon has proposed granting Palestinians sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods while keeping Jerusalem holy sites in east Jerusalem under Israeli control. Olmert has given Ramon a free hand in his talks with Palestinians, but has not necessarily approved every proposal he offers them, Israeli officials have said. In the talks, Ramon has proposed Israel give the Palestinians control over Arab areas of east Jerusalem, Ramon spokesman Tzahi Moshe said. Olmert spokeswoman Eisin said the proposal was Ramon s, and would not comment on it. A political adviser to Abbas, Nimr Hamad, said Ramon s proposal did not go far enough. An Israeli withdrawal from Arab neighborhoods would be a good idea, Hamad said, but Israeli sovereignty over the holy sites would surely be unacceptable. Associated Press
