Today's Situation

Hopes for a quiet weekend Friday, June 23, 2006

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was going to Gaza today to meet with faction heads to discuss the compromise version of the Prisoners’ Document, a manifesto that implicitly recognizes Israel, would restrict Palestinian ‘armed resistance’ to the occupied territories (meaning no more Qassam fire into Israel, while attacks on Israelis in the occupied West Bank would be ‘allowed’) and most significantly, officially puts negotiations with Israel in the hands of the Palestinian president, since he is also head of the PLO.

The reports after yesterday’s breakfast in Petra, attended by Olmert and Abbas, and hosted by King Abdullah, are saying that advance teams from both sides will meet this coming week to start planning an official Olmert-Abbas meeting.

There is no indication yet of what will be on the agenda at the meeting, though Olmert, as is his wont meeting foreign leaders, effusively praised Abbas yesterday for the Palestinian president’s position against terror. Trouble is, later on, Olmert made clear to the Israeli reporters accompanying him that Abbas doesn’t have the political strength to do anything to prevent terror, specifically the Qassam fire that has so embarrassed the army and so upset the residents of Sderot.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz meanwhile has gone on the record with a proposal to start compensating settlers who want to leave the West Bank. Polls have indicated that as many as 40 percent of the settlers would leave tomorrow if they were compensated enough to be able to purchase a home inside Israel and were guaranteed employment. The police are meanwhile preparing for a showdown with settlers at some particularly violent illegal outposts, but it is still uncertain if there will be violent showdowns during those evacuations. More likely, say settler sources, is that the people who put up the illegal outposts will regroup on new hilltops in the area, essentially starting up new outposts. The question is whether this time, the defense ministry will instruct the army to defend those settlers at all costs -- including paving roads to them for ‘security reasons’ -- or demand the police move immediately to remove the wildcat settlers. One thing is likely, however, the ideological teenagers of the West Bank settlements are on vacation and will regard clashes with the police and army over the removal of settlements as badges of courage.

In another development, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was closed again today after it was briefly reopened yesterday, after being closed a few days ago for security reasons. Hundreds of Gazans are said to be waiting to cross the border from Gaza into Egypt, but the European observers who monitor the crossing for terrorists, are not on the job today, concerned about the security alert. Also closed was the Kerem Shalom crossing.

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