Islamic Jihad on Tuesday attended a high-level meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization for the first time, as part of President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to coax militants to join his mainstream group. But Hamas stayed away and Abbas gave no indication how he could reconcile the Islamic militants' declared dedication to Israel's destruction with the PLO's stated support for peaceful coexistence with the Jewish state.

"Definitely, there is a possibility that we can reach an agreement on basic political common denominators," Abbas told reporters after a meeting of his PLO Executive Committee attended by senior Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi. Abbas' efforts appeared to represent an attempt to bring Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the political mainstream. Israel, however, has called on Abbas to dismantle militant groups rather than embrace them. Hamas and Islamic Jihad oppose Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, holding on to their vision of an Islamic state incorporating what is now Israel.

Talks on whether the two factions would join the PLO started last month in Cairo, where militants agreed to extend a de facto cease-fire with Israel until the end of the year. But after the meeting in Gaza, Hindi said "a long time and much effort" would be needed before Islamic factions could agree to membership in the PLO. The PLO, an umbrella group of secular factions, is the Palestinians' main policy-making body.

Hamas, the most powerful militant faction, said it had not sent a representative to the meeting for "technical reasons." Abbas said Hamas was expected to attend a meeting next month that would include committee members and

Islamic Jihad. He gave no time frame for how long the membership process might take.

Abbas held talks on Monday with Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader. During the meeting, according to Ziad Abu Amr, a Palestinian legislator who participated in it, Abbas agreed to Zahar’s request to form a committee with representatives from various Palestinian factions that would recommend how to distribute the land and property of the Gaza settlements after Israel withdraws. Abu Amr said that Abbas and Zahar agreed in principle that the committee's recommendations would not be binding.

The Palestinian Authority has not yet begun preparing for the post-Israel period. The Gaza withdrawal is scheduled to be completed in September. Israel currently controls about one-third of the Gaza strip, with more than 1.1 million Palestinians crowded into the remaining two-thirds. Palestinian opposition groups fear that, after a withdrawal, Palestinian government officials will try to seize prime real estate for their personal gain.

Israel 's Parliament yesterday approved a long-overdue 2005 state budget, so that opponents of the Gaza withdrawal can no longer bring down Ariel Sharon’s government. Sharon secured a majority by pledging hundreds of millions of dollars in special spending to three parties, securing their votes. Settler leaders say they will now take their battle against the pullout to the streets, threatening mass protests and civil war. Failure to pass a budget by Thursday would have forced Sharon to resign.

 Note: Mahmoud Abbas has emerged as a more cunning version of Yasser Arafat. He does not confiscate the arms of the terrorist factions or make peace with Israel on any terms Israel can accept. However, he has hoodwinked Western statesmen, whose ability to judge persons and events is sabotaged by eagerness to discover a Palestinian regime worthy of an independent state.

WAFA, Palestinian Authority, 30 March 2005
Summary of report from Ramallah

Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie accused Tuesday Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon of Distract ing the world with Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. He affirmed that the USA realizes that the Israeli settlement blocs make it impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state, called on the international community to intervene to stop Israel's settlement expansion, and said that his government will ask the US for clarifications of its attitude to Israeli settlement policy.