Up in smoke

[Violet_Crumble]

As sounds of the drums of war coming from Israel are getting louder and louder, Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders are showing growing signs of impatience with the slow-moving talks with Israel.

Visibly frustrated Palestinian officials have been speaking of Israel's "lack of will" to reach a genuine final-status settlement that would end the 40-year-old Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.

This week, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was quoted as saying that he didn't see any real possibility for reaching a peace deal with Israel in the year 2008. Fayyad's assessment is clearly at odd with President Bush's outspoken predictions that 2008 will witness the creation of a sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.

Fayyad, a financial-data analyst by training, is not known for making hyperbolic statements. Hence, his pessimistic appraisal of peace talks with Israel should be taken seriously.

According to Palestinian officials, there are several reasons for Palestinian frustration: First, Israel's understanding and interpretation of the roadmap (the main legal reference upon which Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are based) is substantially different from the Palestinian understanding of the American-conceived plan.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/884/re1.htm