Israeli and Palestinian leaders agree to 'rebuild trust'

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, unexpectedly held his first summit meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Dec. 23 and promised to release $100 million of tax it had been withholding since Hamas came to power ten months ago. The pledge to remit about a fifth of the total withheld tax and promises to ease some travel restrictions in the West Bank were among concessions offered by Olmert to help Abbas without directly aiding the Hamas-led Palestinian authority. At the first set-piece meeting between an Israeli and Palestinian leader since Abbas agreed to a ceasefire with Ariel Sharon in February 2005, Olmert also said he would consider ways of increasing the amount of cargo passing through the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel. Olmert's office said the talks were a "first step toward rebuilding mutual trust and fruitful cooperation." While Olmert repeated his willingness to release long-term prisoners– a demand long made by Abbas– he made it clear there could be no movement until the release of the Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit seized by Hamas and other militants last June. Similarly, he made it clear that any extension of the fragile ceasefire to the West Bank would require it to be enforced in Gaza. Israeli officials said the details of how the withheld tax revenues would be remitted "for humanitarian purposes" have still to be worked out. But Olmert clearly intends that Abbas should take the credit rather than Hamas– a strategy urged on him by British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week.