Israeli Media: Abbas, Olmert to Meet Tuesday
Israeli media reported on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) had scheduled a meeting for Tuesday.
The meeting would be Olmert’s ‘last ditch effort to reach agreement on a peace deal with the Palestinians before he steps down.’
Olmert announced he would resign later this month, after police advised prosecutors to prosecute him on corruption charges. Additionally, Olmert lost a lot of support during the Israeli war against Hezbollah in 2006; a war that severely weakened the Lebanon-based terrorist organization, but which failed to destroy it and, perhaps more importantly, was a major PR defeat for the Jewish nation-state.
Although he announced his resignation, it is possible if not likely that he will stay in office for weeks, possibly months to come; he may function as a ‘caretaker prime minister’ until his successor forms a new government.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who agrees with Olmert on a wide variety of issues, is generally considered to be his likely successor. Another major contender, however, is Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Tuesday’s meeting would provide Olmert with an opportunity to inform his Palestinian counterpart about the latest plan devised to convince Jewish settlers in the West Bank to return to Israel itself. The plan would offer them compensation for such a move.
In outlining the plan, Vice Premier Haim Ramon, one of Olmert’s closest confidants, said the government could offer each settler family living east of the barrier Israel is building in the occupied West Bank some $300,000 to relocate.
