Abbas Extends Hand of Peace to Israel

“We offer the hand of peace to our neighbors and we hope that the response will be positive,” the incoming head of the Palestinian Authority said after being confirmed as the comfortable winner of Sunday’s second-ever Palestinian presidential election.

“The elections are only the beginning, not the end. We have a program full of things to do in order to achieve peace,” the dovish former prime minister said.

The more than40 -point margin of Abbas’ electoral victory grants him the legitimacy he needs to yank the peace process out of its slumber and resume talks with Israel.

Before the voting was even over Sunday, a senior aide in Ariel Sharon’s office said the Israeli prime minister was ready to meet the winner — whose identity was never in doubt — “as soon as possible”.

Abbas is likely to have a summit meeting with Sharon in a fortnight, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said yesterday. Asked when the two men would meet, Shaath said talks would take place “probably in two weeks”. Top level Israeli-Palestinian contacts have been frozen since Abbas resigned as prime minister in September2003 . Both men have indicated a willingness to return to the negotiating table.

There were no massive public displays of jubilation in the West Bank and Gaza after the election results, but Abbas will take over from Arafat with new-found Israeli cooperation and enthusiastic backing from the international community.

US President George W. Bush was among the world leaders to offer their congratulations and also invited Abbas to the White House.

“I look forward to talking to him at the appropriate time. I look forward to welcoming him here to Washington if he chooses to come here,” Bush said.

The White House said Bush will speak by phone with Abbas later this week. Abbas met with Bush at the White House as Palestinian prime minister in July2003 .

National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said Bush will “take this one step at a time.”

Bush came to office wary of engaging in high-stakes Middle East diplomacy. But analysts say the White House sees a rare opportunity in Abbas to reshape Bush’s presidential legacy after a bloody Iraq occupation.

Bush administration officials are already holding up the Palestinian vote as part of Bush’s goal of spreading democracy in the Middle East, and as a potential model for Iraq, where elections are scheduled for later this month.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana already met with Abbas yesterday and promised him all the support he needed from the European Union.

“We have a new opportunity now, an avenue of optimism, an avenue to work together to make the dream of so many people into a reality,” he said.

Yesterday, Sharon stressed that all eyes would be on Abbas’ performance in curbing violence.

“He will be assessed based on the way he will combat terrorism and dismantle its infrastructure,” he said during a meeting with US Sen. John Kerry, who was among the international observers monitoring Sunday’s vote.

Shimon Peres, another emblematic figure of the moribund peace process, also hailed Abbas’ triumph and called him personally to congratulate him.

Hawkish Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas should be given a chance but wasted no time in reminding him of the daunting task he faces.

He stressed that Abbas, who was born in what is now Israel, would have to secure a renunciation of the Palestinian refugees’ right of return and was expected to crack down on fighter groups.

Hamas, which boycotted the election, said it would work with Abbas but ruled out ending the campaign of anti-Israeli attacks.

While most agreed a new era was being born in Ramallah after veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s death on Nov.11 , history was also in the making in Jerusalem, where Sharon won parliamentary approval for a new Cabinet lineup that will give him a majority to implement his Gaza plan.

The Israeli Parliament approved the new coalition by 58votes in favor to 56 against, giving Sharon a new working majority to press on with the plan that prompted pro-settler parties to quit his government six months ago.

The new lineup marks the return in the coalition of Peres’ moderate Labor Party, which left Sharon’s mark-one Cabinet in2002 , partly over disagreements on the funding of Jewish settlements.

Peres becomes Sharon’s No. 2 but does not hold a specific portfolio, while Labor’s Ofir Pines takes over the Interior Ministry. The third party in the new coalition is the United Torah Judaism, which counts five deputies in Parliament and agreed to join without being handed any ministerial portfolios. In the face of opposition from rebel MPs in his own party, Sharon had turned the presentation into a confidence vote.

As the stormy no-confidence vote session got under way, thousands of right-wing Jewish activists massed in front of the Parliament building in Jerusalem to protest the Gaza pullout plan.

Some8 , 000mainly hard-line settlers live in the Gaza Strip, surrounded by close to1 . 4million Palestinians.

— With input from agencies

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=57398&d=11&m=1&y=2005