Israel On Blog

By Lior Charka - Israel On Blog - Political Specialist

On Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert briefed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee saying that the Annapolis summit will change Israel’s strategy toward the Palestinians.

This change of strategy will also change the road map thinking of dealing with the current situation before moving to the next stage.

Olmert also said on Monday :”Now we have realized that we can permit ourselves to change something. The implementation of all agreements by both sides will be subordinate to the road map. We will try to reach an agreement based on two states for two peoples, but we won’t have to implement anything until after the first stage of the road map, in which the Palestinians have committed to fight terror”.

Olmert also said that he believes that the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean is Israeli land but in order to maintain a democratic and Jewish state there’s a need to withdraw from territory.

Even though the summit sounds promising there is still a lot of resistance from the right wing parties who are unwilling to accept further waivers from the Israeli government. Meanwhile Olmert and Foreign Minister Zippi Livni are trying to downplay the summit in order not to create a big disappointment in case the summit ends with no real achievements.

The Annapolis Summit will likely take place till the end of the year. The summit will be attended by the United States, president George Bush And US Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

The big question remains if the summit will bring a real change to the region or not and the answer to that is- only time will tell especially in this complicated situation.

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