Rice: Mideast Peace Talks to Resume

by Glenn Kessler (The Washington Post)

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would resume despite a recent round of violence that had prompted Palestinian officials to halt negotiations.

After two days of meetings here and in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Rice said, "I have been informed by the parties that they intend to resume the negotiations and they are in contact with each other as to how to bring this about."

Posted on: 03/05/08

Clashes Erupt as IDF Vehicles Enter South Gaza

by Yuval Azoulay, Mijal Grinberg and Avi Issacharoff (Haaretz)

Some 25 Israel Defense Forces armored vehicles advanced into southern Gaza after nightfall yesterday, and troops clashed with militants, Palestinian witnesses said, just a day after the IDF ended its offensive in northern Gaza against Palestinian rocket squads.

The Palestinians said the armored column entered Gaza through the Kissufim crossing. Israeli defense officials said it was a pinpoint operation targeting Gaza militants. Helicopters circled overhead near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis as IDF soldiers surrounded the home of a militant. The Hamas-allied Islamic Jihad movement said the man was a leader of its armed wing.

Posted on: 03/05/08

King Abdullah: ‘Unilateral Measures Have Failed’

by The Jordan Times

His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday said that achieving peace in the Middle East needs the engagement of parties in negotiations on clearly defined bases and fixed timeframes, adding that unilateral measures have failed to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

King Abdullah stressed during a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House that Israeli policies of siege and use of military force would only deepen the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and threatens to waste years of negotiations for peace. … The King and the president discussed efforts by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is on a tour of the Middle East. King Abdullah urged the U.S. administration to intensify international support for the peace process.

Posted on: 03/05/08

Kerem Shalom Goods Crossing Reopened

by Hanan Greenberg (Ynet)

The Kerem Shalom terminal in the southern Gaza Strip was expected to reopen Tuesday after being closed for six weeks for security reasons.

Some 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to the Palestinians were expected to pass through the terminal, while 60 additional trucks containing equipment and medications were to cross the border at the Suffa crossing.

Posted on: 03/05/08

Hamas Must Not Set the Agenda

"So here we are, in the midst of exactly the scenario that many months ago we predicted: the ‘peace process,’ having dutifully ignored the Gaza Strip, is discovering that the Gaza Strip will not ignore the peace process. … One hopes that when Condi Rice arrives in Jerusalem, her agenda will be consumed by Middle East realities, rather than the Middle East fantasy of the peace process, which is now over and done with."
–Noah Pollak, Commentary Magazine, March 2008

VS.

“We decided to go to Annapolis to work with the pragmatic leaders, to start this peace process with an understanding that we are doing so even though we are going to face terror attacks on Israel … I said clearly that we are going to continue the negotiations because otherwise we give Hamas the keys and control of the peace treaty because if they know that by using terror they win the cessation of the negotiations, this would only give them a good reason to continue terrorism.”
–Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni, briefing foreign ambassadors on the escalation of Israel-Hamas conflict, March 3, 2008