Three months have passed since the Annapolis Conference, with all the extravagance that accompanied it.
Now all the glamour has faded and the expectations once again are lowered because no progress was achieved, to quote our Prime Minister Salam Faya’d’s speaking at a conference of Jewish organizations in Jerusalem.
Yesterday, President Mahmoud ‘Abbas held a new meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, while the head of the Palestinian negotiating team Ahmed Qurei met with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni, which means that the three highest-ranking officials in the Palestinian Authority were involved in variant levels of almost concurrent negotiations.
Yet no progress was achieved. Everything went on its planned course on the Israeli side, whether that be assassinations, incursions, detentions or settlement activities.
The same Israeli logic about "conceding parts of the Land of Israel," not for the sake of peace or justice, but out of fear for the Jewish state, still dominates the negotiations.
According to Israeli sources, both sides have agreed not to talk publicly about what was discussed during the meeting or about its agenda. The reason might be that there was a contradiction with regard to the Palestinian and Israeli statements about the topics of the meeting.
Israeli sources claimed that the P.A. has agreed on an Israeli demand to put off any dealings with the Jerusalem issue to the final stage, while the Palestinians denied this allegation and insisted that all issues, without exception, are being discussed.
These routine meetings have become routine and boring, for the ordinary Palestinian does not see any practical step moving forward. He does not care anymore about such meetings.
This fact should force a reevaluation process of the entire situation and the negotiating process, if there is any process at all.
Ibrahim Deibes is a veteran Palestinian journalist. This editorial first appeared in Al-Quds.