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Peace Process

Israel to Washington: Hold your horses


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
January 31, 2005

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’s effort to temporarily curb anti-Jewish terror is a move in right direction, but is still insufficient to warrant the start of negotiations on a permanent peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.

That is the message Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s bureau chief Dov Weisglass will carry with him when he meets with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday, according to The Jerusalem Post .

Weisglass is expected to tell Rice Israel will not agree to full-fledged final status negotiations until the PA meets its long overdue commitment to eliminate the threat of Islamic terror emanating from territories under its control.

The current Abbas-brokered hudna, or temporary truce, fails to fulfill that commitment, as it allows the terrorist infrastructure to remain intact and armed.

Israel remains adamant there can be no short-cuts through the US-backed Road Map peace plan, the first phase of which obligates the PA to disarm and dismantle Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO’s satellite terror groups.

Jerusalem has expressed concerns over recent European enthusiasm that peace is just around the corner.

The EU has been pressuring both Israel and the PA to immediately take advantage of what it says is the current “window of opportunity” to restart full-blown talks.

Washington, one Israeli official told the Post , must not similarly become “intoxicated by the new smell of peace in the air.”

Rice is scheduled to follow up her meeting with Weisglass with a quick 24-hour visit to the Middle East Sunday to hold talks with Israeli and PA leaders.

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