abbas and Olmert to meet; rumor: secret plan may be underway for Israeli troops to gradually pull out of West Bank

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On the eve of a very important meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel is making some very heavy concessions in an attempt to bolster the Palestinian president.

Some of the concessions...Israel will stop hunting Fatah militants if they will sign a nonviolence pledge and surrender their weapons. So far, 178 militants have signed the three month pledge and will be allowed to join the Palestinian security forces.

Of course, this move has ruffled the feathers of Hamas citing it will only undermine the resistance. "Abu Obeida, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, slammed Fatah for the amnesty agreement, saying it was meant 'to destroy the spirit of the resistance' and allow Israel to focus on Hamas militants." http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/07/15/israel-prisoners.html?ref=rss

Other concessions...Israel will ease Palestinian travel restrictions, release 250 prisoners (85% are Fatah militants) and allow two exiled leaders to enter the West Bank for a parliament meeting.

Israel's new President Shimon Peres is also campaigning for peace and is willing to give up territory to obtain it. "I believe that politics deals with borders and the economy in relations. Good relations are likely to make possible the marking of secure and agreed borders," he said.

"We have to get rid of the territories (Judea and Samaria)," he earlier told a news agency, referring to the West Bank, insisting that this is the majority view in Israel today. http://www.ptinews.com/pti/ptisite.nsf/$All/CEF678E1509E64B86525731A0018D0E1?OpenDocument

US officials have also come out and said that President Bush will contribute financial aid to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as a show of support for his government.

"The president sees there is an opportunity there now to show the Palestinian people a choice between the kind of violence and chaos under Hamas in Gaza and the prospect, under President Abbas and Prime Minister (Salem) Fayyad, for an effective, democratic Palestinian state that can be on the way toward what we all want, which is a two-state solution - a Palestinian homeland for the Palestinian people," national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2007/06/18/4269598-ap.html

The aide package is said to be worth more than $86 million and will be earmarked for security for President Abbas. The Bush administration also said that they would contribute $40 million to the UN to help the Palestinian people in Gaza.

It's hard to say where this will end up but it sounds like cross town Hamas has cut themselves out of the two state proposal. As I said in an earlier article, the world looks to be getting behind Palestinian President Abbas and the creation of his government in the West Bank. Unless Hamas can come to terms with President Abbas, and when I say terms I mean his terms, they may find themselves isolated and branded a terrorist nation.

Another element of the plan (reported by DEBKAfile), which is being kept rather quiet, is the slow departure of Israeli troops from the West Bank. Apparently, this departure will take on a more subtle approach in hopes that it will not be noticed by the majority of Israeli citizens. This is what DEBKAfile had to say about the possible secret pullout:

"Sunday night, July 15, there were reports that Israel was now being asked to give Palestinian security forces the freedom to range over the West Bank. In other words, the IDF is under pressure to abandon its highly-successful system of manned military roadblocks and checkpoints and counter-terror arrest raids, which reduced almost to zero the years of Palestinian suicide attacks in which Fatah played a leading part.

The elements are therefore in place for beginning to ease Israeli troops out of the West Bank and requiring them to hand over the responsibility for fighting terror to the Palestinians.

Prime minister Olmert has performed the difficult task of putting Israeli opinion to sleep while quietly embarking on a dangerous gamble with national security. Once it is discovered, he relies on the public’s faulty memory not to recall the abysmal failure of every accord Israel forged with the Palestinians for ending terrorist violence in the past seven years, in 2000, 2003 and 2005. Each broke down in an upsurge of hostile violence in support of ever stiffer demands for more Israeli concessions.

President Bush and his secretary of state are badly in need of tidings that can be presented as a big breakthrough for their Middle East policies, however short term. They will therefore push their plan through over the coming weeks. Olmert and Co. will not dare rain on their parade." http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=129

As things continue to come together I can see Bible prophecy being fulfilled very soon.

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Terry Malone