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Olmert Embarks on 1st Visit to Washington As Prime Minister

Posted on: Sunday, 21 May 2006, 21:07 CDT

JERUSALEM _ Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert flew to the United States on Sunday for talks expected to focus on his plan to withdraw Jewish settlements from large areas of the West Bank and unilaterally set Israel's borders.

It will be Olmert's first visit to Washington as prime minister. He is scheduled to meet President Bush and other top administration officials and address a joint session of Congress.

Olmert has said he wants to secure American support before moving ahead with his withdrawal plan, but the Bush administration has so far not endorsed the idea.

The challenge for Olmert will be to square his plan with the internationally backed Middle East peace blueprint known as the road map that has been promoted by the Bush administration. It outlines steps leading to negotiations and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Olmert has said that he would prefer negotiations, but if the Palestinians fail to meet the requirements for talks, Israel will act on its own. He has ruled out negotiations with the Palestinian Authority unless the Hamas-led Palestinian government recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts previous agreements with the Israelis.

The withdrawal plan calls for a removal of Israeli settlements from much of the West Bank while annexing large settlement blocs to Israel. Olmert has said he wants to set Israel's permanent border, roughly along the line traced by Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank.

The United States has maintained that any final border must be determined through negotiations, and administration officials are expected to urge Olmert to pursue that option first.

The Palestinians have rejected Olmert's plan, saying it is an attempt to dictate final borders that leave them without enough land for a viable state.

As Olmert left for Washington, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the highest-level contact between the two sides since Hamas won Palestinian elections in January.

The meeting indicated that the Israelis want to keep channels of communication open to Abbas, who is viewed as a moderate and advocates negotiations to reach a final peace settlement.

Livni said that a meeting between Olmert and Abbas could be expected after the prime minister's visit to Washington. However, Olmert has said that Israel views the Palestinian Authority as one entity and will not conduct negotiations unless Hamas meets the conditions set by Israel and the international community.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition," Olmert dismissed Abbas as a negotiating partner.

"He is powerless. He is helpless. He's unable to even stop the minimal terror activities amongst the Palestinians," Olmert said. "So how can he represent the government in the most crucial, complex and sensitive negotiations, about which there are so many divisions within the Palestinian community?"

Abbas urged Israel to renew peace talks and not act alone. "The drawing of final borders cannot happen through dictations, but rather in negotiations," he said in an address to the Economic Forum. "Unilateralism will quickly put an end to the two-state solution and will increase violence."

Abbas said he could negotiate as the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and that the Hamas-led Palestinian government would not obstruct the negotiations, whose outcome would be brought to a referendum.

Before Olmert left for the United States, the Israeli Cabinet approved the transfer of $11 million in drugs and medical equipment to the Palestinians to ease shortages after the cutoff of funds to the Hamas-led government.

Money to purchase the supplies will be taken from the $50 million of taxes and customs duties collected monthly by Israel for the Palestinians, but whose transfer was frozen shortly after Hamas won elections. The supplies are to be transferred directly to medical institutions through international aid agencies.

"We have no intention of helping the Palestinian government," Olmert was quoted as telling the Cabinet in a statement released by his office. "But I say we will transfer more than what is necessary for humanitarian needs."

The newspaper Haaretz described the approval of medical aid, as well as Livni's meeting with Abbas, as a nod to American concerns in advance of Olmert's arrival in Washington.

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security officials said they foiled a second attempt in two days to kill a security chief close to Abbas, further raising tensions between his Fatah movement and Hamas.

The officials said they discovered a large bomb planted on a road regularly traveled by Rashid Abu Shbak, who was recently appointed by Abbas to head three security agencies nominally under the control of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. Hamas responded to the appointment by forming its own security force, which was put on the streets last week.

On Saturday a bomb badly wounded Tareq Abu Rajab, head of the Palestinian General Intelligence, and killed one of his bodyguards at his headquarters in Gaza City. A previously unknown group, the Qaeda Organization of the State of Palestine, claimed responsibility for the attack in a Web statement whose authenticity could not be verified.

In another development, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the army to investigate a missile strike in Gaza City on Saturday that killed a Palestinian child, his mother and grandmother along with an Islamic Jihad militant.

An Israeli aircraft fired two missiles into a vehicle driven by Muhammad Dahduh, whom the army described as a senior operative in Islamic Jihad involved in rocket attacks on Israel. The explosion also killed 5-year-old Muhanad Amen, his mother, Hanan Amen, 25 and his grandmother, Naima Amen, 45, who were in a nearby car, a hospital official said.

In the West Bank, a Palestinian woman was killed early Sunday during exchanges of fire between gunmen and Israeli soldiers in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, Palestinians said. According to reports from the camp, the woman was shot as she looked out of a window of her house. The army said that troops came under fire, but did not respond.

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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