Abbas to Sharon: Happy New Year
Prime Minister Sharon and PA Chairman Abbas will meet in 'the near future,' after a previous meeting between the leaders was recently canceled. Abbas called Sharon Sunday to wish a happy new year, Sharon replied with greetings for the Ramadan
Good tidings mark the approaching of the new Jewish Year. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to meet in the near future, in order to "further the standing issues on the agenda."
Abbas called Sharon and offered greetings for the approaching New Jewish Year, while Sharon responded with greetings for the Muslim Ramadan.
Both leaders expressed their wish that the coming year will be peaceful and bear hope for the future. The PA chairman also called President Moseh Katzav earlier Sunday, and wished him a happy new year as well.
According to a political source, the anticipated meeting between Abbas and Sharon will "focus on the further actions the PA must take in order to enable a continued implementation of the Road Map plan. The rehabilitation of the economy will obviously be on the agenda as well, but the PA's reining-in terror is a condition for any other negotiation."
The meeting between Sharon and Abbas was originally set to take place on October 22nd, but the Palestinians have called it off it in protest of Israel's cancellation of a preliminary meeting between the PM's advisor Dov Weisglass, and the Palestinian Minister in charge of negotiations, Saeb Arikat.
The cancellation was a direct response to the Palestinian Qassam attacks on southern Israel. However, in light of the current calm in the region, the meeting appears to have better prospects.
Rehabilitation projects in the Strip
The recent cease fire declaration by the Palestinian terror organizations is expected to boost Abbas' position ahead of the planned meeting with Sharon. PA security officers are presently focusing their attention on an operation to confiscate weapons from the population, in a bid to contain the anarchy in the Authority, and in the Strip in particular. The PA has stated that to date dozens of illegal arms have already been collected.
Abbas himself toured the posts set up by the Authority's security officers for collecting the weapons, and expressed his appreciation of the officer's work.
The last few days in the Strip also saw the promotion of several projects that are a direct result of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. One of them is the rehabilitation of the hot houses in the evacuated settlement of Netzarim, a project which will be carried out in other places as well. The main objective of the project is to provide employment for about 4,000 workers, and it is expected to generate revenues of millions of Shekels a year.
The Authority has also initiated the establishment of institutes to promote the development of infrastructure, research and communication. A communication academy was founded in Gaza Sunday, in cooperation with communications giant Cisco. The academy will provide Palestinians with technological education, and is part of a wider plan to advance technological training in the Authority.
'The rules have changed'
"It appears that the high price tag Israel attached to terror activity, made it clear to the Hamas that the rules have changed, and the organization will find it difficult to continue with rocket launching in the near future," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said during a Government meeting Sunday.
"We can see clearly that the new rules Israel set in the Gaza Strip are making their mark, but they have yet to bring about a complete transformation within the Strip's major bases of power," Mofaz added.
During the meeting, Sharon addressed the Palestinian issue, and the stand Israel has taken on the matter in the PM's talks in the U.N.: "We made it clear that Israel perceives the Hamas participation in the elections, in the organization's current form, a threat."
"This move goes against the Road Map and our understandings with the Palestinians. We said that Hamas can only participate in the elections after it has given up the road of terror and abandoned its weapons, and after it has withdrawn from the statement calling for the destruction of Israel," Sharon said.
"We made it clear that the PA elections are an internal matter that Israel cannot prevent, but we however stressed that Hamas participation will affect the measure of Israel's cooperation with these elections, and will make it impossible for us to collaborate as we did during the former elections for chairman," Sharon concluded.
