[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: In the short time since the Security Cabinet met
and decided that its goals include both "cessation of rocket fire" and
"reduce the strengthening of Hamas" = stop the smuggling etc. PM Olmert and
the rest of his team have come out saying that Israel would accept a hudna.
That's a ceasefire with the continued strengthening of Hamas.]

Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev declined to discuss the parameters of any
possible deal but suggested Israel could be open to a cease-fire. "If they
were not shooting at our civilian population, we would not have to respond,"
he said.

Jerusalem official: Peace talks may resume as early as Thursday
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies Last update -
22:00 05/03/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/961188.html

The stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians may resume as
early as Thursday, a senior official in Jerusalem said Wednesday evening.

According to the official, a low-level meeting will be held Thursday while
efforts to coordinate a meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will continue in the coming days.

A meeting will also be set up between chief negotiators Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni and the top Palestinian advisor Ahmed Qureia.

Earlier Wednesday, Abbas agreed to resume peace talks with Israel, only
hours after he conditioned talks on a cease-fire with Israel in the Gaza
Strip.

Abbas announced his change of heart in a statement from his West Bank
headquarters. "The peace process is a strategic choice and we have the
intention of resuming the peace process."

Abbas suspended talks at the beginning of the week to protest an
exceptionally deadly Israeli military assault in the Gaza Strip, where
militants affiliated with the ruling Islamic Hamas movement have been
pounding southern Israel with rockets.

In response, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum criticized Abbas' stance
reversal, saying "Abu Mazen [Abbas] is a weak man, who couldn't protect the
Palestinian people."

"America and Israel don't take him into account, but only use him as a tool
to pass their plans on the Palestinians," he added.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also said Wednesday that the
Palestinians and Israel plan to return to the negotiating table, concluding
a brief troubleshooting mission to the region on a positive note.

Under pressure from Rice, Abbas backed down from his earlier truce demand,
allowing her to announce that talks would resume, U.S. officials said.

"I've been informed by the parties that they intend to resume the
negotiations and are in contact with one another as to how to bring this
about," Rice said at a news conference in Jerusalem following a meeting with
Livni.

Rice pointedly did not call for a truce and urged Hamas to halt its rocket
fire. At the same time, she urged Israel to do its best to protect
Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire.

"There are enemies of peace that will always try to hold hostage the
Palestinian cause and the future of the Palestinian people for their own
state," she said." And Hamas, which in effect holds the people of Gaza
hostage in their hands is now trying to make the path to a Palestinian state
hostage to them. We cannot permit that to happen."

Abbas did not say when talks would resume, but Rice said that a U.S. general
would come to the region next week to prod peacemaking along. A senior U.S.
official said Rice had agreed to dispatch Lieutenant General William Fraser
III as a gesture to the Palestinians, who hope for American pressure on
Israel.

In January, U.S. President George W. Bush appointed Lt. Gen. William Fraser
III to monitor both sides' compliance with the road map peace plan.

The plan's initial stage calls on Israel to stop settlement activity and
obliges the Palestinians to clamp down on militants. Abbas, however,
controls only the West Bank and has no influence over Gaza, which has been
ruled by Hamas since a violent takeover in June.

Both sides, Rice said, need to carry out their road map obligations to have
robust peace negotiations.

Rice said the Palestinian president would like to see an end to violence,
but added: "This is not a condition."

Abbas had said earlier Wednesday that peace talks could not resume until
Israel agrees to a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

"The negotiations must be started, but after the truce," Abbas said. "Once
the truce is achieved the road will be open for negotiations."

He said Rice told him she would send an envoy to Egypt, which often mediates
between Israel and Hamas. "There are real efforts being exerted by Egypt for
the truce," Abbas said.

Although Abbas did not mention Hamas by name, his aides said the Islamic
group must clearly be part of a deal. Hamas seized control of Gaza from
Abbas' forces last year, and he wields little influence in the area.

The aides said Abbas has proposed a package in which Hamas halts its
relentless rocket barrages on southern Israel if Israel ends its attacks on
Palestinian militants and Egypt reopens its border with Gaza.

Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev declined to discuss the parameters of any
possible deal but suggested Israel could be open to a cease-fire. "If they
were not shooting at our civilian population, we would not have to respond,"
he said.

Also Wednesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Rice that Israel would not
be deterred from conducting a major military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"Israel is committed to the security of its citizens, and while we do not
want a wide operation in the Gaza Strip, we will not be deterred from it,"
said Barak.

Rice met Palestinian negotiators Ahmed Qureia and Saeb Erekat in a final
effort to convince the PA to resume negotiations, prior to her meetings with
Barak and Livni.