TWO states, not three

From AFP 13/1/08:

US admits Mideast peace deal hangs on fate of Gaza

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — A senior US official acknowledged on Saturday that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would depend on the fate of Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas.

Hamas .... meanwhile, dismissed US President George W. Bush's vision of a Palestinian state.
The US official, who declined to be named, said the fate of Bush's targeted peace deal by the end of this year depended on Abbas taking back control of the Gaza Strip. "I don't think in the long term that an agreement is going to work if Hamas continues to control Gaza," he said. "That's why we repeatedly said that the Palestinian Authority should resume its responsibility for the government in Gaza as well," he said. "Exactly how that is going to work I don't know, I can't predict the future."

The official also drew a distinction between any Israeli-Palestinian agreement and its actual implementation. "It seems that it will take some time," he cautioned....

....Dismissed Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya, meanwhile, rejected what he termed "Bush's vision ..."...Haniya hit out at the president's suggestion that a peace agreement might exclude the refugees returning to the homes they fled in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.... Haniya also called for an end to "security cooperation" between Israel and Abbas.

Another Hamas leader, Ahmad Bahar, accused Bush, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of "conspiring against the Palestinian cause and the armed struggle."

On Friday, Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said the movement would not be bound by any agreement that Abbas and Olmert reached, adding that the proposed deal fell far short of Palestinian aspirations.


On this subject, following are excerpts from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting 13/01/2008:

"US President George Bush concluded his visit to Israel last Friday.... The President was briefed, made his views known and reiterated the US's absolute commitment that no agreement between us and the Palestinians can be carried out on the ground before the Roadmap is implemented in full, including all of its commitments regarding the security of the State of Israel both in the Gaza Strip and in Judea and Samaria. There is no separation between the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria regarding the Palestinians' commitments. The US President said that we are discussing the establishment of two states for two peoples and not three states for two peoples. The emphasis on this is very important....