JERUSALEM, 5 November 2007 — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heard a strong message from Israel yesterday that security must precede the creation of a Palestinian state, as she sought to bridge gaps ahead of a peace meeting.
Making her eighth visit this year for shuttle diplomacy between Israel and the Palestinians, Rice lowered expectations of an imminent agreement on a joint document for the US-sponsored conference she hopes could revive peace talks.
“The meaning is security for Israel first and then the establishment of a Palestinian state because nobody wants to see another terror state in the region,” said Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, greeting Rice for breakfast.
“Though we need to find a common ground with the pragmatic (Palestinian) leaders, they need to understand that the implementation of future understandings will be implemented only according to the... road map.” The internationally drafted peace plan has made next to no progress since it was adopted in June 2003, and has already missed its first deadline for creating a Palestinian state living in peace alongside a secure Israel.
Israeli negotiators, headed by Livni, and their Palestinian counterparts have been divided for weeks over a joint document they are supposed to draw up for the meeting aimed at reviving the peace process after a seven-year hiatus.
Not a single word has yet been written for the conference document and wide gaps remain between Israel and the Palestinians, although both sides have agreed that commitment to the road map would be part of the statement.
The Palestinians want the document to tackle the most intractable problems of the conflict — namely borders, refugees and the status of Jerusalem — and a timetabled implementation, while Israel favors a looser statement.
Rice later met Defense Minister Ehud Barak before scheduled talks with international Middle East envoy Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and an address to the Saban Forum think thank in Jerusalem.
Today, she is to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Ahmed Qorei, who heads the Palestinian negotiating team, and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah.
Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon, a key Olmert ally, said at the weekend that Israel wants a peace deal with the Palestinians before US President George W. Bush leaves office in early 2009.
But he said Israel would continue to resist Palestinian demands for a firm timetable to solve the most divisive issues of the conflict.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes and shelling killed four Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip yesterday, after militants fired three rockets toward the Jewish state, medical and security officials said.
Barak warned last week that every day brought closer the prospect of a full-scale Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, where more limited raids have been unable to curb rocket fire.
The Palestinian presidency condemned the killings and accused Israel of endangering talks at a time when Rice was pressing diplomacy in Jerusalem ahead of an international peace meeting.
Three of the Palestinians — civilian workers — were killed when an Israeli shell exploded near the place where they changed clothes for their factory job, local medical officials said.
The dead were named as 40-year-old Zaher Al-Har, his son Yussef, 18, and 22-year-old Mohammed Abu Habib. An Israeli airstrike killed Bassem Khadura, 25, from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, and critically wounded another fighter from the radical faction in the same area, medical officials and witnesses said.
An Israeli army spokesman confirmed two airstrikes and ground shelling against the northern Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks.
