Israel rejects Mecca agreement

Haaretz:

Israel on Saturday rejected the Mecca agreement on a Palestinian unity government. It says the accord is not in line with the Quartet of Middle East mediators' conditions - recognition of Israel, renouncing violence, and ratifying past agreements and the road map.

Government sources said Israel would insist on the three conditions, which are expected to be the focus of the tri-partite summit between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice next Monday.

The sources said the controversy over the new Palestinian government and its accepting the Quartet's demands casts a heavy shadow on the triangle summit. Since the Palestinian government will not be formed by next Monday, the argument on the Mecca agreement will not cast doubt on the summit's existence. However, any progress in the peace talks is conditional on the Palestinian government's fulfilling the Quartet's demands, they said.

A political adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Saturday that the unity government would not recognize Israel.

"The issue of recognition was not addressed at all [in Mecca]," Ahmed Youssef said. "In the platform of the new government there will be no sign of recognition [of Israel], regardless of the pressures the United States and the Quartet would exert," he said.

...

A senior Israeli source said the Quartet's statement made it clear that any Palestinian government must adopt the three conditions in full.

"At the end of the Mecca meeting, the Palestinians made no statement agreeing to those terms. The terror acts against Israel continue, including Qassams and smuggling munitions to Gaza and kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit has not been released yet," he said.

...
The rest of the world seems to ignore the Palestinian intentions which they openly express. Perhaps the Saudis wanted the Palestinians to quit shooting at each other and thought that was a worthy objective. The Palestinians may have taken that as a reason to focus on a common enemy--Israel. At this point I would not give them a dime. Let others subsidize their terrorism.

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