Abbas cancels Olmert meeting

The one achievement that U.S. Secretary Condoleezza Rice made on her March trip to the Middle East was to coax the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to face off and talk every two weeks, even if all they exchanged were grumbles and growls.

Even that watery promise hasn't worked out so well.

So far, the two leaders met once in April, and then Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was otherwise engaged. His militia was locked in a vicious feud with Islamic militants Hamas down in Gaza, and then, after a barrage of rocket attacks by Palestinians on an Israeli town, the Israeli air force joined the fray.

If only for appearances' sake, Olmert was supposed to meet again with Abbas on Thursday –just to show Condi and the man in the White House that he was really trying with the Palestinians. Olmert is flying on June 19th to Washington.

But on Wednesday, Abbas called an end to the farce and cancelled the meeting. The Palestinians told Olmert that there was no point in the usual grin and photo op (long gone are bear hugs between the two men). The sticking point, say Palestinians, was Israel's refusal to hand over an estimated $800 million in tax revenues to the Palestinian authority, which Israel has withheld since Jan. 2006 when Hamas was voted into power.

And, Israel nixed Abbas' attempts to bring about a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza, by enlarging the truce to include the West Bank. Israel is intent on continuing military sweeps against suspected terrorist cells in the West Bank, and during one operation on Tuesday, soldiers killed a 70 year old Palestinian man and shot his wife in the head. The shooting provoked outrage among Palestinians -- Israeli officials said it occurred during a scuffle over a weapon-- so it would have been even harder for Abbas to countenance a meeting with Olmert.

Once again, Olmert can blame the no-show on the Palestinians. But this time, the Bush Administration may not be so pleased. Ms Rice was counting on Olmert to show a modicum of flexibility with the Palestinians, if only to strengthen the more moderate Abbas against Hamas militants.
--by Tim McGirk/Jerusalem