http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/297845C9-F275-4F0C-A4CB-6C4946378AF7.htm

At the Annapolis conference, hosted by the US on Tuesday, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, spoke about their committment to beginning a process in which they would resolve all outstanding issues by the end of 2008.

Abbas said that "all issues, including ... refugees, borders, settlements, water and security and others," must be discussed, and said that any peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians should ensure that Palestinians have East Jerusalem as their capital.

Olmert pledged to enter continuous negotiations with the Palestinians in an effort to complete an agreement by the end of 2008, but also said it was time to end "alienation toward the state of Israel", adding that Israelis were "prepared to make a painful compromise, rife with risks in order to realise these [peace] aspirations."

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst: "I've heard from three other gentlemen - President Clinton, Chairman Arafat as well as Prime Minister Rabin - the same speeches, exactly the same way, 14 years ago with, presumably, the very same determination.

"Where the Israeli prime minister, then as now, took the higher moral ground and spoke about Israeli suffering, when Israel is an occupying force when Israel is an occupying force for the last 40 years, of the Palestinian people.

"Whereas President Abbas took the practical road, without any of the conscientious discourse that we heard by the Israelis, whereas it is the Palestinian people under occupation.

"We heard the names of three [kidnapped] Israeli soldiers held by the Palestinians and the Lebanese, but we didn't hear a single name of the ten or eleven thousand Palestinian prisoners, by Abbas.

"We haven't heard anything about the majority of the Palestinian parliament that are in Israeli prisons.

"So it is really more of the same process, more of the same discourse, more of the same practicality and pragmatism.

"I haven't heard anything today that gave me the impression that anything after Annapolis would be better than anything before Annapolis, which in my mind would be a way to judge a meeting like Annapolis."

Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent, in Annapolis: "The statement of President Bush gave the Israelis something the Palestinians were hoping not to hear from him.

"That Israel was the homeland of the Jewish people ... which is a controversial demand that Israel is making to the Palestinians - to recognise the Jewish nature of the Israeli state - thus dropping all claims to the Palestinians right to return as outlined by various UN resolutions.

"In many ways President Bush put the carriage ahead of the horse. He asked the Palestinians to prove that they can forge peace; to prove that they can build a democratic Palestinian state and to prove that they can achieve security.

"President Abbas responded by reminding President Bush and Prime Minister Olmert and also speaking to his domestic audience ... that peace starts with committment, and that the arab peace initiative means that Israel has to make the first step by ending its occupation."
David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem: "I think it's the closest they could get to a joint declaration.

"In the end it was a statement read by President Bush which was merely there give the contours of final status negotations. The important thing is that some sort of negotiations were agreed. By the end of 2008, they'll have some sort of agreement.

"There will be bi-weekly meetings, steering committees, intense negotiations. We are beginning to get some sort of detail about how the momentum will be developed.

"It's all about Annapolis plus one. We've had photo opportunities, we've had the fine speeches, now we get down to the really hard work and those really hardcore issues.

"It was, in a way, a disappointment that the joint understanding was a feeble statement about how the negotations would go.

"Nevertheless, it was a strong speech by George Bush; a strong speech also by the Palestinian president. He said there's been a paradigm shift, they are now at the crossroads; that it was a defining moment and that they must go forward; that they will not avoid any issue."

"Interestingly, the Israeli prime minister said they would stand by all obligations. That means a freeze on settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, including natural growth ... And demolition of the outposts, illegal even under Israeli law."

"But also he mentioned that certain areas may not be completely withdrawn to pre-1967 borders."

Annapolis peace talk finds little resonance at home

JERUSALEM, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Stirring televised speeches from Annapolis on Tuesday about the need for peace had limited resonance among Israelis and Palestinians with memories of failed summits that led to more bloodshed. Though it was hardliners on both sides who came out against Tuesday's resolution by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to renew negotiations, reservations were not far from the minds of moderates. "What we need is less talk and more action. Only history can judge whether this conference will bring peace," said Dedi Cohen, 32, a lawyer in Israel's coastal metropolis Tel Aviv.

Noting Abbas's truncated authority since the June civil war in which Hamas Islamists took over the Gaza Strip, Cohen said: "The Palestinians are so torn up from within that I don't know who to believe any more."

In Gaza, Hamas held mass rallies that vowed to block any accord on permanent coexistence with the Jewish state. Similar protests in the West Bank, where Abbas still holds sway, were forcibly quelled by Palestinian police. One demonstrator died.

For Tareq Dahnous, a 26-year-old salesman from the West Bank city of Hebron, the main problem remains Israeli occupation, despite Olmert's hints at major territorial handovers to Abbas.

"This is a failed meeting," was Dahnous's prediction on Annapolis. "I wish I had an independent state, but it is difficult to achieve."

In Ramallah, Abbas's administrative centre, 35-year-old Raed Fayz praised Abbas because he "didn't make compromises on any final issues" in his Annapolis address.

Abbas and Olmert spoke in their native languages, Arabic and Hebrew, a departure from the English favoured at past summits. For some, that implied their main goal was to win over sceptics at home.

DIVISIONS

Disagreement over how to tackle core issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem divided Olmert and Abbas. Within the Israeli and Palestinian societies, they form the battle lines between ultranationalists and those seeking a two-state accord.

The Yesha council of Jewish settlers, which tried and failed to scupper Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, held demonstrations in Jerusalem denouncing Olmert for his willingness to cede biblical West Bank land to the Palestinians.

Despite U.S. President George W. Bush's endorsement, at Annapolis, of Israel's drive to remain a "Jewish homeland", Yesha leader Danny Dayan accused the peace conference's host of seeking a way of salvaging his legacy after the Iraqi war. "The transparent attempt to complete negotiations within a timeframe that will allow George Bush to get the Nobel Peace Prize will lead to a catastrophe," Dayan said.

Israeli Arab lawmaker Ahmed Tibi, a long-time adviser to Palestinian leaders, dismissed such hawkish talk.

"The Israeli right wing has nothing to worry about yet, because nothing has yet been agreed on the actual creation of the Palestinian state," Tibi said.

A poll commissioned by Israel's Channel One television found 62 percent of Jewish citizens expected Annapolis to lead to further stalemate and an escalation of fighting with the Palestinians. Fifteen percent predicted a breakthrough in talks.

Suspicion of Bush was shared by Abu Abed Abu Karsh, a Gaza shopowner: "All he wants to achieve in the conference is normalisation between Israel and the Arab world while forfeiting the Palestinian cause."

Analysts and diplomats have speculated that another aim of Annapolis was for Israel and Sunni Arabs to close ranks against non-Arab Iran and its nuclear programme, which has set off regional jitters.

"The problem is not Abbas but Hamas and Iran, and both of them are not in Annapolis (so) I don't know how this can help us," said Eli Shani, a resident of the coastal Israeli town of Netanya.

http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSL27104911