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Occupied Jerusalem: On her thirteenth visit to the Palestinian territories, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice witnessed a Palestinian stance that she might not have seen before, according to Palestinian politicians and analysts. This was the result of the tense situation in the Gaza Strip and criticisms pointed at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"Nobody in the world can justify the massacre Israel has carried out in the Gaza Strip, with the killing of more than 120 Palestinians; among them 20 children" said Abbas, explaining himself to Rice at a press conference in Ramallah.
According to sources in President Abbas's office Rice tried to persuade the President of the importance of immediately resuming negotiations with the Israelis so that Hamas will not achieve its goal of destroying the peace process.
However, President Abbas said that negotiations with the Israelis should be delayed for a while under the current circumstances.
Moreover, according to Ari Michael, the former chief of the Israeli foreign ministry, and one of the main people behind the setting out of the Israeli foreign policy Rice's visit to the region is considered, on its own, an accomplishment disregarding the subject matter and the peace process.
Special agendas
"Israel is preoccupied with its special agendas that are mostly influenced by the people's voices, the polls, and the rightist factions more than they are influenced by Condoleezza Rice's visit," wrote Akifa Al Dar in his column in the Ha'artz newspaper. Yusi Elver, the well-known political analyst and editor of the Bitter Lemons journal that specialises in the Palestinian-Israeli struggle, agreed with Al Dar's comments.
"If Rice's visit to the region is aimed at saving the peace process and taking it back to its normal track, then failure will be its fate because the indications confirm that the coming days will face tremendous escalation regarding the situation in the Gaza Strip.
"The most important question is can this peace process succeed despite the deteriorating situation in Gaza" Elver told Gulf News.
"The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert realises that if the Israeli soldiers do re-occupy the Gaza Strip, then that will be the end of the peace process. However, Olmert doesn't want that to happen because his government doesn't possess a clear strategy; it doesn't want to negotiate with Hamas to reach a long truce. Therefore, it hopes that negotiations with the Palestinians in the West Bank will lead to an agreement and this agreement will somehow solve the problems of people in Gaza," he added.
Although Abbas and Olmert and their negotiators unanimously agree that it is possible to see US President George W. Bush considering 2008 a year of peace and of establishing a Palestinian State; no one can answer the question: How?
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