During his meeting with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made positive remarks on Israel-Palestinian relations, but will these pledges lead to concrete progress in the future?
Shlomo Brom, an expert on Israel-Palestinian relations, said during an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday that he doubted that their meeting would bring about dramatic change between the two sides.
"I doubt it because the two sides entered the discussions with fundamental gap of expectations about the way to develop the Israel-Palestinian relationship," said Brom, a senior research associate at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).
Brom said what Abbas would like to see is an immediate start of the permanent status negotiations so that the interim government the set up in the West Bank after Hamas' forcible takeover of the Gaza Strip in June will gain more support from the Palestinian public, while Olmert is not interest in it.
Due to the current security situation in the West Bank, it would bring more risks than benefits to the Jewish state if Israel agrees to restart final status negotiations right now.
People believed that during previous meetings between the two leaders, Olmert was only trying to persuade the Palestinians to accept another interim arrangement, which will include the establishment of a Palestinian state, but without discussing the core issues, including the final border, the status of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees.
"With the dispute between the two sides exist, I don't expect the meeting will lead to important breakthrough, but I would assume that some daily issues, such like the ease of restriction on the Palestinians' movement in the West Bank, will be taken care of during the meetings," said Brom.
On Monday, Olmert met with Abbas in the West Bank city of Jericho, becoming the first Israeli prime minister to visit a Palestinian territory since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada (uprising) seven years ago.
Both sides have termed the meeting "constructive," but reported no breakthrough.
During the meeting, Olmert told Abbas he hopes to launch negotiations as soon as possible on establishing a Palestinian state, which marks his clearest pledge yet to tackle a final peace deal.
But some Israeli officials balked at describing the meeting as an attempt to address the so-called final status issues, saying the two leaders instead were expected to discuss the "fundamental issues," which would be the basis for an independent Palestinian statehood.
What is more, the Israeli public are also skeptical that a two-state solution could be realized in the near future.
A recent poll conducted by a research center of Tel Aviv University showed that 70 percent of the Israeli Jewish public supports a peace agreement with the Palestinians based on the "two states for two peoples" formula, but a clear majority believes that this is not achievable in the near future.
According to the poll, which surveyed 580 people, 55 percent of the respondents said they don't believe in the possibility of reaching an agreement based on this formula in the near future.
However, Brom also noted that the external circumstances for Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace agreement have changed a little towards the positive side in the recent period.
The Arab Peace Initiative with Israel relaunched by Arab leaders in their summit meeting in Riyadh in March, the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers' recent ice-breaking visit to Israel, as well as the U.S.-proposed Middle East peace summit in November could all be considered as positive factors from the external.
But to reach the final peace, Israel and the Palestinians still have long way to go.
(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2007)
