From THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 23, 2006, by Herb Keinon and Khaled Abu Toameh ....
Israel will turn over $100 million in tax revenue that it has collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority but held up since Hamas came to power earlier this year, Israeli officials said after a surprise meeting in Jerusalem Saturday night between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
The tax issue was one of several, including the release of Palestinian security prisoners and Cpl. Gilad Shalit, that Olmert and Abbas discussed at the Prime Minister's residence. According to the Israeli officials, it was the only issue on which the two leaders achieved tangible results.....Abbas adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina was quoted after the meeting as saying it was the first of what will be a series of meetings between the two men.
.... According to a statement the Prime Minister's Office put out after the meeting, the money will not go the Hamas-led Palestinian government. Releasing the money was one of the steps Israel would take, the statement said, to ease the humanitarian situation in the PA.
....Olmert...expressed concern over the continued firing of Kassam rockets, and said Israel restraint could not continue indefinitely in the face of the attacks from Gaza. Nevertheless, Olmert and Abbas discussed extending the Gaza cease-fire to the West Bank.
They also agreed to revive joint committees established at Sharm es-Sheikh in 2005, and that Abbas's Force 17 "Presidential Guard" would be deployed along the Philadelphi Corridor.
Abbas was also accompanied by negotiator Saeb Erekat and former PA prime minister Ahmed Qureia. Olmert was joined by his chief of staff, Yoram Turbowicz, foreign policy adviser Shalom Turgeman, and military secretary Brig.-Gen. Gadi Shamni.
Olmert has been saying since July that he was willing to meet with Abbas at any time, but that the Palestinians had conditioned the talks on a release of security prisoners, something Olmert has refused to do until Shalit is freed. Last Monday, Olmert announced that an joint Israeli-Palestinian committee would be set up to discuss the criteria for which prisoners would eventually be released, a move that apparently paved the way for Abbas to agree to the meeting.
....International leaders have for months encouraged both Olmert and Abbas to hold talks, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who visited here last week, the latest to urge a meeting.
The two-hour meeting was only announced shortly before it began at 7:30 p.m., though it has been widely anticipated for days.
PA officials claimed that the meeting took place after Israel accepted some of Abbas's demands, including the deployment of the Jordan-based Badr Brigade - which belongs to the PLO's Palestine Liberation Army - in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as the release of frozen Palestinian tax and tariff revenue.
....The meeting took place despite the continuation of Kassam rocket fire on Israel. The attacks continued over the weekend....
Yaakov Katz contributed to this report.
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