Israeli and Palestinian leaders agree to 'rebuild trust' at surprise summit

The West's attempt to pull off a political coup in Palestine moved up a gear yesterday when Olmert had a surprise meeting with Abbas in which he promised to cough up $100 million (£51 million) of the moneys that Israel owes to the Palestinian Authority. This represents one fifth of the money that the Israelis are holding off from paying the Palestinians, and is exactly the kind of deal that assures Israel and the West that Abbas is the kind of man they can deal with.

He will accept this kind of "sweetie money" and label it a victory; so here's the kind of man that Israel and the West are keen to have sitting at the negotiating table when it comes to a discussion of occupied territory. If he will accept a fifth of what he's owed and call it victory in financial terms, they can only hope he will do the same when it comes to the slight matter of Palestinian land illegally grabbed by Israel.

It is to this end that Blair and Bush have pushed Abbas as the kind of man they can deal with. A "moderate".

I suppose this meeting - the first ever since Olmert came to power, indeed, the first since Abbas agreed to a ceasefire with Ariel Sharon - is Israel's way of rewarding Abbas for calling for a new set of elections in Palestine, a call that may very well lead to civil war in the region. The Israelis and the West have been furious ever since the Palestinians elected Hamas, and Abbas has done them a great favour by deciding to call for a new set of elections that will, they hope, reverse the result of the first elections that he hated so much.

This is the beauty of democracy Bush/Blair style. If you don't like the result of an election you can always simply impose sanctions on the voters, increase their unemployment to 65% and then ask the buggers again. It's a sort of democratic "offer you can't refuse".

So Olmert, who's popularity has plunged in Israel since their botched war in Lebanon, will now negotiate with Abbas, the man who's party lost the election in Palestine, and these two men - neither of whom enjoys popular support amongst their electorates - will embody democracy and the "moderate" way forward.

Olmert will transfer this $100 million directly to Abbas and bypass the democratically elected Hamas government.

The meeting is a "first step toward rebuilding mutual trust and fruitful cooperation," Olmert's office said in a statement. More meetings are planned, said Erekat.

In other words, the meeting is a way of confirming that Abbas will accept as little as Israel is prepared to offer. Were he not to do so, he would lose the ability to have Blair, Bush and Olmert label him a "moderate". Were he to dare to ask for what the Palestinians are due, he would be labelled "unreasonable" and Israel would, once again, be left searching for "a partner for peace" in the Middle East.

This is the US/Israeli game. We have seen it played out with Iran - where they are asked to give up the enrichment of uranium before talks about uranium enrichment can begin - and now we see it played out again with the Palestinians. Agree to everything we ask for or negotiations will be impossible.

Abbas, I have no doubt, feels that this is the only reasonable way forward that will yield any substantive results.

However, the Palestinian people rejected him for this very obsequience towards the Israelis. An occupied people are already a humiliated people. I doubt very much that Abbas prostrating himself in this way will do much to endear him to the populace.

Indeed, it is said that one should be careful what one wishes for, lest you should get it. That may well prove very true for Abbas' wish to have the Palestinian electorate once again express their democratic opinion.

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tag: Israel, Palestine, Gaza, Hamas, Quartet, starvation, boycott, Fatah, Olmert, Abbas