[Jerusalem Post] Herb Keinon - Officials from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' office called Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's bureau on Wednesday to cancel a planned meeting of the two in Jericho on Thursday. Palestinian officials said Israel rejected demands to release hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Palestinian tax revenues or accept Abbas' proposal for restoring a cease-fire in Gaza and extending it to the West Bank. Abbas' cancellation of the meeting underlines growing apprehension in Jerusalem that he is too weak of a leader to be able to carry out any commitments. Israeli officials said Jerusalem would not agree to a cease-fire in the West Bank, since daily IDF military activity there is essential to keep terrorism from returning to higher levels. Olmert was apparently willing to release some of the frozen tax funds, but only through a mechanism that would ensure the money would not be used by the Hamas-led PA for terrorist purposes. Officials said that Israel was not satisfied with the mechanism set up to channel $100m. in frozen tax funds that Israel transferred to Abbas earlier this year.
2007-06-07 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive