Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took the stage at the Saban Forum on Sunday evening in Jerusalem, and delivered an impassioned speech promising to seriously pursue current Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, saying that "all the fundamental questions and substantial problems will be on the table at Annapolis."
Palestinians have been seeking negotiations surrounding the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - including the issues of Jerusalem, borders and the Palestinian refugees - before the U.S.-sponsored peace summit scheduled for next month in Annapolis. Israel has refused to discuss these issues in the past, but Olmert said on Sunday that "all of the questions are on the agenda. We won't run away from any of them."
Speaking on the 12th anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Olmert recalled his predecessor's peace efforts - which he acknowledged he did not support at the time. He declared he is "indebted" both to the legacy of Rabin and of former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who carried out the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and who Olmert replaced after Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke in January 2006.
On his hopes for the success of the summit, Olmert repeatedly referenced the U.S.-backed road map for peace, on which Israel insists negotiations be based. The first phase of the road map stipulates the Palestinians must dismantle terror organizations, while Israel is obligated to halt settlement construction and dismantle illegal West Bank outposts.
Though he mentioned Palestinian road map obligations, which he said hadn't been fulfilled, he also said that "we should remember that the road plan calls on Israel to take a series of actions. These also haven't been carried out. We won't let up on the Palestinians on their obligations, and we won't dodge ours."
As he has said in the past, Olmert reiterated that serious negotiations on Palestinian statehood would take place only after Annapolis. He expressed hope that a two-state solution - with a "Jewish state for the Jewish people and a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people" - would be achieved before U.S. President George W. Bush's term ends in January 2009.
Just hours after he and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice agreed Syrian officials could attend the conference if Damascus did not seek to address the Golan Heights, Olmert said at the Saban Forum, "I will come to Annapolis and extend my hand in friendship and goodwill to whoever will be there."
Rice warned the gathering of scholars, leaders and peace negotiators that if the peace summit fails to produce progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, Muslim extremists could increase their influence on Palestinian youth, who have grown up knowing only violence and Israeli occupation.
"If we do not act now to show the Palestinians a way forward, others will show them a way forward," Rice said.
Rice promised that the upcoming Mideast conference will be a serious and substantive meeting.
Rice urged both sides to take advantage of the current opportunity for peace talks, saying "Palestinians have waited too long for the dignity that will come with an independent state. We have all waited too long for peace."
Tony Blair, who Olmert followed at the podium, told the forum participants that he hoped to announce a series of projects soon to help bolster the Palestinian economy.
Blair, envoy for the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators and former British prime minister, said that formal negotiations over creating a Palestinian state should not be "impossibly difficult". But he acknowledged the path was "utterly fraught" and both sides had to take steps to build confidence.
Blair said he has presented Israeli and Palestinian leaders with set of proposals meant to improve economic conditions in the occupied West Bank.
"[The Palestinians] need change on the ground," he said, citing major development projects, including some near the West Bank town of Jericho.
Blair said his goal was to announce the first set of economic projects and "a process for getting them actually done" before a the Annapolis conference.
Barak vows not to cause a humanitarian crisis in Gaza
Earlier Sunday, Rice met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who assured her that Israel's economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip would not cause a humanitarian crisis.
"The sanctions Israel has imposed on civilians and the state will not cause a humanitarian crisis in the [Gaza] strip," Barak told Rice.
The defense minister also told Rice that the Israel Defense Forces would remain responsible for security in the West Bank City of Nablus to ensure that order is maintained, in spite of recent cooperation there between the IDF and Palestinian Authority police.
Barak added that if the Nablus model of cooperation proved successful, it could be applied later in other West Bank cities. Barak also told Rice that he would be meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayad later this week to discuss the subject.
The defense minister recently denied reports that he and Fayad are establishing a joint committee to evaluate the efficacy of Palestinian actions against terror organizations.
Rice also met with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who told her that Israel's security must be assured before a Palestinian state can be created.
Livni and Rice met Sunday morning in Jerusalem for talks aimed at overcoming the impasse between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of the U.S.-sponsored regional summit.
At the start of their meeting, Livni said that negotiations with Palestinians ahead of the peace summit have stalled.
"There is no tension, but there are problems," Livni said. "There are differences of opinion over the road map. We must reach a basic understanding that the creation of a Palestinian state should occur only after Israel's security is established."
Israel insists that any future agreement be put into effect only after the Palestinians meet their obligations according to the road map.
Israel has said that the Palestinians have not done enough to meet their security obligations, and that the evacuation of outposts does not have the same degree of urgency as maintaining security and containing terrorism. In turn, the Palestinians claim that 90-95 percent of the first phase has already been carried out, while Israel has failed to abide by its commitments.
"The situation is complicated," Livni said on Sunday. "One must understand that we have a shared interest with the moderates in the [Palestinian] Authority, and they need to understand that first there must be security, and only then a Palestinian state. The problem is not over making a joint declaration, but what its content would be."
Before arriving in Israel on Saturday, Rice held a rare meeting with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem as the West stepped up pressure on Damascus not to interfere in Lebanon's presidential election process.
Rice told Livni on Sunday that the purpose of those talks was to ensure that the election be democratic and free of intimidation. The secretary of state reiterated that the U.S. had not changed its policy toward Syria.
The United States and France, Lebanon's former colonial power, have led international criticism of what they call Syria's constant meddling in its neighbor's affairs. Syria denies the accusations.
Officials made no comment on Rice's talks with Moallem, held on the sidelines of an international conference on Iraq in Istanbul.
U.S. to serve as arbitrator over road map plan
In their talks 10 days ago, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to a proposal by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to allow the United States to serve as arbitrator to negotiations between the two sides regarding the implementation of the road map.
Officials in Jerusalem said that "Israel has no problem with American supervision that is in line with the road map."
A number of contentions have arisen during previous meetings of the negotiation teams.
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