Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/world/middleeast/30mideast.html
March 30, 2008
In Mideast, Rice Urges Cooperation on Security
By HELENE COOPER [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [following the Annapolis conference and the agreement to seek agreement by end of 2008] [more tit-for-tat violence] [just days after first suicide attack inside Israel for some time, rockets pouring down in Israel again] [now disposed and angry Gazans, not Hamas per se, exercised over Israel again instead of Hamas] [followup] [escalation dynamic occurring!] [going nowhere fast] [archive in govt too] [*****]
JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began a trip to the Middle East on Saturday by calling on Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to find ways to improve security in the West Bank for Israelis and to ease roadblocks there that hamper movement for ordinary Palestinians.
The goals are not new, but Ms. Rice is hoping that any steps forward on those issues will reinvigorate talks that suffered a setback after a recent outbreak of violence that killed more than 120 Palestinians in Gaza, many of them civilians, and three Israelis during one week.
The talks on security and other issues that affect daily life are part of a two-tiered peace effort that also includes negotiations on what a future Palestinian state might look like.
Ms. Rice’s trip continues the Bush administration’s quest for a peace agreement before the end of President Bush’s time in office.
“I’m not coming to insert American ideas into this process,” Ms. Rice told reporters on the plane on the way to Israel, referring to the peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians that began in Annapolis, Md., last year. “But I do want to talk about where this process is going.”
Ms. Rice’s schedule includes dinner on Saturday night with Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, then a quick trip on Sunday to Amman, where she is to meet with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and King Abdullah, Jordan’s leader. Sunday night, she is to return to Jerusalem for talks with Israeli officials before returning to Amman on Monday for a final round of talks with Mr. Abbas.
Ms. Rice’s last trip to the region took place earlier this month during an outburst of violence in Gaza and the nearby areas in Israel. [*****]
“Obviously we’re continuing to try to find an answer for Gaza, where there needs to be an end to the rocket attacks on Israel,” Ms. Rice said.
But she stopped short of advocating an American-mediated cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, [****]the militant Islamist organization that seized control of Gaza last summer from Mr. Abbas’s organization, Fatah.
Israel and the United States, which classify Hamas as a terrorist organization, have eschewed direct dealings with its leaders. But Hamas has shown that it can disrupt the peace talks between Israel and Mr. Abbas when it wants, as it did last month after rocket fire from Gaza hit the Israeli city of Ashkelon. The Israelis then began an incursion into Gaza.
As the Palestinian death toll rose, Mr. Abbas suspended the peace talks. Ms. Rice spent most of her last trip to the region trying to persuade him to return to negotiations.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company