JERUSALEM, Dec. 12, 2007
Mideast Peace Talks Resume Amid Violence
First Direct Two-Party Negotiations In Seven Years Come On Heels Of Annapolis Conference
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Palestinian mourners carry the body of Omar Khalil, a militant from the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees, during his funeral in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 12, 2007. Khalil was one of six Palestinians killed on Tuesday during an Israeli military incursion into the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
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Photo Essay Annapolis Summit U.S. hosts high-stakes Mideast peace conference at U.S. Naval Academy.
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Interactive Mideast Conflict Events, key players and a history of the world's most unstable region.
The talks went ahead despite a new outbreak of violence in the Gaza Strip. Early Wednesday, Palestinian militants fired 16 homemade rockets toward Israel, causing minor damage lightly wounding one woman, Israeli officials said.
The barrage came hours after Israeli forces ended a broad incursion into the coastal strip that killed six militants and left a wide swath of damage in its wake.
Israel's incursion into Gaza, along with a plan to expand a neighborhood in disputed east Jerusalem, have prompted Palestinian charges that Israel is sabotaging the atmosphere even before the talks begin. Israel rejects the charges.
Late Tuesday, Israel announced that the talks would be moved from Jerusalem's ornate King David Hotel to an undisclosed location.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said the talks got under way around midday. He said both sides wanted to keep the meeting "low key," but there were hopes to "jump start" the peace process. The talks were believed to be taking place at another Jerusalem hotel.
Israel is pursuing peace with the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who rules from the West Bank. At the same time, it continues to battle the Hamas militant group, which has ruled Gaza since defeating Abbas' forces last June.
Israel regularly carries out brief ground incursions and air strikes in Gaza in a bid to stop Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israeli towns.
The Islamic Jihad militant group said it fired nine of the rockets to avenge Israel's incursion. "The resistance is going to escalate the operations targeting the Zionist colonies in the coming hours," said Abu Ahmad, a spokesman for the group.
Tuesday's operation, in which tanks and bulldozers pushed 2.5 miles into southern Gaza, was the broadest push since the Hamas takeover. Early Wednesday, the troops had withdrawn to a buffer zone along the Israeli border.
The Israeli forces left behind heavy damage to al Fukhari, a farming community near the southern town of Khan Younis.
About 75 acres of olive trees and orange groves were uprooted, greenhouses and the outer walls of homes were damaged, and homes were left without power, said Ouda Alomar, mayor of the community. Repair crews were trying to restore electricity and reopen roads that were closed with dirt mounds put up by the troops, he said.
In other developments:
Olmert convened his security Cabinet Wednesday, a group of top political and defense officials, to discuss the Gaza situation. Officials decided to continue the police of brief incursions into Gaza, but decided against launching a broad invasion of the area.
One Cabinet member, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said officials are concerned that a broad invasion would cause heavy casualties to Israeli troops and damage the prospects for peace talks.
Wednesday's negotiations were to be the first since Israel and the Palestinians formally relaunched peacemaking at an international conference last month in the United States. Olmert and Abbas set an ambitious target of December 2008 - near the end of President Bush's tenure - to conclude a peace deal.
The last round of talks crumbled in early 2001, shortly after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising. Since then, more than 4,400 Palestinians and 1,100 Israelis have been killed.
Negotiators are expected to quickly move to issues that have buried past talks - West Bank settlements, borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state, sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem and a solution for Palestinian refugees.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, the chief negotiators of the two sides, were expected to lead Wednesday's talks. Abbas and Olmert weren't scheduled to attend, though the men, who speak regularly, are expected to meet soon.
While the issues at the heart of the conflict haven't changed, conditions may be better now for fruitful talks.
Opinion polls show that majorities on both sides want a peace settlement. Negotiators say a failure could strengthen rising Islamic extremism in the region, and U.S. and Arab backing for peace moves - absent for years - is providing an important push.
But obstacles remain. Both leaders face domestic troubles, making it tough for them to offer concessions.
Israeli hawks are determined to bring down a peacemaking government, and Abbas now controls only the West Bank, having lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas militants. The violent Islamic group is committed to Israel's destruction and allows Gaza militants to fire rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel almost daily.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he hoped the talks would move past procedure. "I think the expectation that they had set out was that this was going to be more of an organizational kind of get-together," he said.
Mideast envoy Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, said an agreement is possible, but "it needs the most intensive focus from the international community and from the United States."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- The real story is the proposed oil pipeline that will be built down the coast from Turkey to Israel. Condi Rice is trying to broker this deal. BP oil, US oil interests and the Saudis all have a stake in that pipeline. Domonique Strauss- Khan managing director of the International Monetary Fund and Robert Zoellick president of the World Bank are also in attendance. Big money won''t finance the venture without stability in the region. Same as the deal with the Caspian Sea pipeline.
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- The recent middle east peace summit was also covered up. The real story is the proposed oil pipeline that will be built down the coast from Turkey to Israel. Condi Rice is trying to broker this deal. BP oil, US oil interests and the Saudis all have a stake in that pipeline. Domonique Strauss- Khan managing director of the International Monetary Fund and Robert Zoellick president of the World Bank were also in attendance. Big money won''t finance the venture without stability in the region. Same as the deal with the Caspian Sea pipeline.
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- it was labeled PALAESTINA by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 130, but there has never been a land called Palestine - underdogus
funny coincidence huh? try this recent history:
, Foreign Office,
November 2nd, 1917.
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty''s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:
"His Majesty''s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely
Arthur James Balfourin Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely
Arthur James Balfour - Reply to this comment
- rokero0666 the rockhead...I want to clear up some misconceptions about who the Palestinians are and their claim on the land of ISRAEL. The land of ISRAEL has never belonged to Palestinian. NEVER! it was labeled PALAESTINA by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 130, but there has never been a land called Palestine. there no Palestinian language. before 1948,the people now called Palestinians lived in EGYPT, they lived in Syria, they lived in Iraq they moved into the land of ISRAEL when they were displaced by the WAR of 1948 wich the ARAB nations started, but ISRAEL is not occupying territory these people now call home......
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How gold pays for 
