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By MARK LAVIE The Associated Press Sunday, December 30, 2007; 8:21 PM JERUSALEM -- Furious over the killing of two Israelis hiking in the West Bank, Israel's prime minister said Sunday that no peace will come until Palestinians crack down on militants, a declaration that clouds a coming visit by President Bush.
To clear the way for Bush to push for progress, the two sides had just
agreed to paper over another spat: Israel's plan to build 307 new
apartments in a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, the section
claimed by the Palestinians. But that was before the shooting of two off-duty Israeli soldiers Friday
by Palestinian attackers, in a valley near the West Bank city of Hebron.
There were two claims of responsibility: one from Hamas and Islamic
Jihad; the other from Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has ties to
Abbas' Fatah movement. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking before the weekly meeting
of Israel's Cabinet, denounced the hikers' shooting deaths. "As long as the Palestinian Authority doesn't take the necessary steps
and act with the necessary vigor against terror organizations, Israel
won't be able to carry out any change that would expose it to any
jeopardy or endanger Israel's security," he said.
ad_icon Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, however, saw the talks as an answer
to violence. "To address this issue between Palestinians and Israelis,
we need the resumption of a meaningful peace process," Erekat said. Israel's demand for a crackdown on Palestinian militants derives from
the internationally backed "road map" peace plan, the agreed basis for
the talks. The road map requires dismantling militant groups and Israel
has long demanded that such a crackdown precede implementation of any
peace accords. The number of people killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence dropped
dramatically in 2007, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had pledged to restart
peace talks at Bush's Mideast conference last month in Annapolis, Md.,
aiming for a peace agreement by the end of 2008. But periodic crises are
already hampering the efforts. There have been two meetings of negotiating teams and one Olmert-Abbas
summit since the Annapolis conference. After debating Israeli settlement
policy and Jerusalem construction, the two sides have agreed to start
tackling the main issues _ the status of Jerusalem, fate of Palestinian
refugees and final borders, disputes that have stymied years of peace
efforts. Yasser Abed Rabbo, an aide to Abbas, said Sunday the Palestinians
decided to gloss over the dispute about Jerusalem construction to keep
the Israelis from blaming them for a stalemate. "We will not give the Israelis a pretext to claim that the peace process
has failed due to the Palestinian boycott, not due to their settlement
activities," he told a meeting of West Bank intellectuals in Ramallah. Abed Rabbo said a Palestinian delegation would head to Washington this
week for talks to prepare for Bush's visit, set to begin Jan. 8. Bush is
hoping for significant progress toward peace between Israel and the
Palestinians as a mark of success for his foreign policy. In keeping with the road map, the Palestinians demand a complete halt to
construction in Israel's West Bank settlements. Israel claims the right
to build inside the settlements without expanding them and does not
accept a building ban in Jerusalem. The Friday killings brought a call from Israeli Cabinet Minister Eli
Yishai to halt the peace talks altogether. Yishai's hawkish Shas Party
represents Orthodox Jews of Mideast origin. While pursuing peace with Abbas' government, Israel has stepped up
military pressure on militants in the Gaza Strip. On Sunday, Israeli troops opened fire militants planting explosives near
the Israeli border in southern Gaza, the army said. Hamas said one
member was killed. But the number of deaths in Israel-Palestinians violence dropped
dramatically overall in 2007, according to a report released Monday by
the Israel-Human rights group B'Tselem. Israeli forces killed 373 Palestinians this year, a 45 percent drop from
the previous year, the group said. Palestinians killed 13 Israelis in
the same period, the lowest number of Israeli fatalities since the
renewed outbreak of fighting between the sides seven years ago. B'Tselem
said its numbers covered the year until Dec. 29. Israel also said it was taking the threats of Osama bin Laden seriously
a day after the al-Qaida leader vowed to expand his terror group's holy
war to Israel. Most of the 56-minute audiotape tape released Saturday dealt with Iraq,
but bin Laden also offered an unusually direct attack on Israel,
threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction." Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said al-Qaida operatives have been
inching closer to Israel in recent years, and Israel is aware of the danger. "Israel takes bin Laden's threats seriously. We have seen al-Qaida
activity to the north of Israel, in Lebanon, to the east of Israel, in
Jordan, and to the south of Israel, in Sinai," he said. "There is also
evidence of al-Qaida activities in the Palestinian territories. As a
result, we will be irresponsible not to take this rhetoric seriously." Palestinians deny that al-Qaida operatives operate in their territories.
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