Israeli-Palestinian Summit Canceled

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday canceled a planned summit meeting with Ehud Olmert, saying the Israeli leader has failed to accept any of his suggestions for reducing tensions, such as renewing a cease-fire and releasing frozen tax revenues.

Even so, the Palestinian foreign minister said Abbas and Olmert are likely to meet later in the month in Egypt under the auspices of the "Quartet" of Mideast peacemakers. The minister, Ziad Abu Amr, said the Palestinians want the Quartet — the U.S., EU, United Nations and Russia — to work to break the deadlock.

Olmert and Abbas had been expected to sit down together Thursday in the West Bank town of Jericho in what would have been their first talks on Palestinian territory.

David Baker, an official in Olmert's office, said the meeting was postponed at the request of the Palestinians. "Prime Minister Olmert will be ready to meet with Abu Mazen at any time," he said, referring to Abbas.

Palestinian officials said they called off the meeting because Olmert has rejected their proposals.

Abbas wants Israel to release hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen tax revenues, as well as restoring a cease-fire in Gaza and expanding it to the West Bank and restarting formal peace talks.

"Israel is not responding positively to these demands, so the president decided not to go to this meeting," Abu Amr told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

But shortly after, he announced that Olmert and Abbas will be invited to Cairo by the Quartet on June 25. Representatives of the 22-member Arab League — which is pushing a plan for comprehensive peace with Israel — also will attend, he said. He said EU diplomats are already preparing the gathering.

Abu Amr said the Cairo talks were important because they signaled stepped-up international involvement in breaking years of impasse between the Israelis and Palestinians.

"It will make the Quartet see by itself who is responsible for hindering any of the issues being discussed," he said.

U.S. and Egyptian officials confirmed the planned gathering in Cairo. But no further details were immediately available. Olmert's office said it has not yet received a formal invitation.

In a newspaper article published Wednesday, Olmert said he is ready to discuss the Arab League peace plan, but only if the Arabs are willing to be flexible.

The peace plan, first proposed in 2002 and recently revived, offers a comprehensive peace deal with Israel in exchange for a full withdrawal from territories captured in the 1967 Mideast War.

Israel has welcomed the plan, but said some aspects, such as an apparent call for resettling Palestinian refugees in Israel, are unacceptable.

"I am ready to discuss the Arab peace initiative in an open and sincere manner," Olmert wrote in the British newspaper, The Guardian. "But the talks must be a discussion, not an ultimatum."

The article coincided with the 40th anniversary of the 1967 war, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim all three areas for an independent state.

Under prodding from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Olmert and Abbas agreed in March to meet every two weeks with the aim of moving beyond day-to-day issues and outlining a permanent peace deal.

However, the men have met only once since then, and any chances of reviving peace talks have been clouded by the resumption of fighting in Gaza.

A five-month truce collapsed last month when Hamas militants began firing barrages of crude rockets into southern Israel. More than 60 Palestinians, most of them militants, and two Israeli civilians, have been killed.

In violence Wednesday, Israeli aircraft struck a group of militants in northern Gaza, killing one, Palestinian officials said. The army said the militants were planting a bomb.

In the West Bank, a 67-year-old Palestinian man was killed and seven family members were injured in an Israeli arrest raid, police said. The army said troops who entered the man's house were attacked with a gas canister and other household objects, and opened fire when one of the Palestinians grabbed a soldier's rifle.

The renewed violence had been expected to top the agenda of Olmert's meeting with Abbas.

Abbas has proposed a truce that would commit Gaza militants to halt their rocket fire for a month before expanding the cease-fire to the West Bank.

Hamas, which shares power with Abbas' Fatah, and other militant groups have said a truce is out of the question as long as Israel keeps up its attacks and refuses to include the West Bank.

Israel will bear responsibility for refusing the truce offer, said Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas government spokesman. "They will not achieve any victory," he said. "They will not stop the resistance."

Israel has reacted coolly in light of the latest attacks in Gaza.

Palestinian officials said another key sticking point in the summit preparations was Israel's refusal to release hundreds of millions of dollars in tax money it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.

Israel froze the payments last year after Hamas was elected to power, demanding the militant group accept international calls to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state. Hamas rejects the conditions.

The cutoff in payments, along with international sanctions against Hamas, has left the Palestinian government unable to pay full salaries to tens of thousands of employees.

In an essay published in The Guardian, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said the climate with Israel is "catastrophic" and urged the West to engage his government.