polls, palestinians and the path to peace, page-6

This Daniel Pipes is a committed Israel supporter. Practically speaking, the Palestinians and the Jews could live together in Israel, but there's far too much bad history on both sides for that to happen now.

Both sides are living in fear and misery. They are mostly living on adrenalin, passion and hate for each other. The peace process must be restarted.

Middle East Times 14 Feb
By Joshua Brilliant and Saud Abu Ramadan UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Top Israeli and Palestinian officials have been meeting secretly in an attempt to work out a ceasefire that would entail an Israeli pullback and an easing of travel restrictions on Palestinians, officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took part in some of those meetings, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

The director of the prime minister's Bureau, Dov Weissglas, on February 8 told Israel Radio the talks have been going on for months, continued under extra care during the recent election campaign, and picked up after Sharon won the elections.

The meetings were held with the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ahmad Qurei, better known as Abu Ala, and with the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee secretary, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. Abu Mazen was moot as a possible future Palestinian prime minister.

Weissglas met also the Palestinian interior minister, Hani Al Hassan, who is responsible for security. The latter meeting was held at the home of US ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, in Herzliya north of Tel Aviv.

Another Israeli-Palestinian meeting is expected in the coming week.

Though seemingly promising, the talks still place the onus on the Palestinians to act "decisively and energetically to cease terror", according to Weissglas.

It was not immediately clear why the Israelis decided to reveal the talks, first in a leak to TV and then in a lengthy interview to Israel Radio.

Some observers believed Sharon wanted to demonstrate he is trying to reach a peaceful settlement to persuade the dovish-led Labor Party to join the government he must form in order to be able to rule successfully and garner US support. Weissglas also insisted Israel would not negotiate with Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat, despite recent willingness on the part of Arafat to talk. He accused Arafat of torpedoing attempts to reach agreements and described the Palestinian leader him as an old man who won't change.