Mr. Olmert Comes to Washington

It looks like he came for a nice skull session with W on what to do with Iran and Palestinian State borders. I'm glad he is not just going simply wait out Hamas and is going to jump over their head to speak directly with Abbas. That means peace might still be within their grasp.

US officials had also demanded that Israel hold talks with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah president. Mr Olmert on Tuesday said he would “exhaust every opportunity” to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority and pledged to “extend my hand to Mahmoud Abbas” and meet him. Although a date has not yet been set he said it would be “in the near future”.

He added that he accepted the “sincerity of Mahmoud Abbas as the elected president of the Palestinian Authority” but offered the caveat that he “hoped that he will have the power to meet the requirements necessary for negotiations”, such as Israel’s security concerns. He warned that Israel would “not wait indefinitely,” before pursuing withdrawal from settlements.

I have a feeling that the US and Israeli flags together like that will end up on some Islamic Hate site somewhere.