The unprecedented meeting on Saturday between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his new Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, was not expected to achieve any breakthrough. Given Sharon’s insistence not to implement the road map until he has discussed some 15 reservations with President Bush, as opposed to Abbas’ support for the road map as it is — yet his adamant stand that the Palestinians cannot begin taking steps in line with its provisions until Israel decides to accept it — there was no immediate agreement. The relationship between the two sides was made even more tense by the attack on a bus in Jerusalem yesterday which killed eight Israelis.
Perhaps nothing of substance was supposed to occur between Sharon and Abbas; the actual meeting itself was important enough. It was the first meeting between the two men and the first between top Palestinian and Israeli officials in three years, since the start of the intifada. But whatever goodwill the meeting generated, it quickly evaporated following the bus attack.
The attack led Sharon to postpone a meeting he was to have had with Bush in Washington this week. More important, though, the bus blast will become Sharon’s excuse for not wanting to implement the road map as it is. As recently as last week, Sharon told Secretary of State Colin Powell that Israel could not accept the road map as drafted by the US, the EU, the UN and Russia, the so-called Middle East Quartet. Sharon instead reserved making any decision until after talks with Bush. His reservations state that all movement on the political front hinges on the Palestinians waging “a real war against terror,” a deferral for now of any Israeli settlement freeze and an up-front Palestinian renunciation of the right of return of refugees in exchange for any Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.
Abbas has answered that any Palestinian effort to curb violence, as the road map says they must, cannot begin without Israeli acceptance of the road map. In the Middle East last week, Powell failed to bridge the gap and in the first meeting between Abbas and Sharon, Abbas strove to succeed where Powell failed. Most people believed that would not happen and they were proved right.
It is easy to understand Abbas’ concern. He has vowed to end the intifada, initially through a cease-fire agreement between the Palestinian factions but ultimately through a Palestinian Authority strong enough to impose “one law” throughout the Palestinian territories. But he knows that neither a cease-fire nor an enforcement can happen without an Israeli withdrawal from the PA areas and an end to actions such as the Israeli Army’s continued incursions into Gaza. Abbas is in a similar dilemma with the settlements. In line with Israel’s obligations under the road map, he has called for a total end to settlements. Sharon’s reply was that Israel’s settlement activity “was not an issue on the horizon right now.”
Recent Palestinian opinion surveys show Palestinian majorities in favor of a mutual cease-fire and a return to negotiations. But this support is dependent on Israel’s keeping the road map promises of a withdrawal and settlement freeze. Abbas cannot hold on to the PA’s security commitments without holding the Israelis to theirs.
