Israeli and Palestinian negotiators meet this week to work toward the long-shot US goal of achieving a comprehensive peace deal this year that even Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says is out of reach. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to meet separately, and then together, in Washington on Wednesday with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minster Ahmed Qurei, the two sides' lead negotiators. The three-way talks will be the latest in a series Rice has convened this year but, like the Israeli-Palestinian bilateral negotiations, have yet to produce tangible progress toward ending the six-decade conflict. Beyond the intrinsic difficulty of resolving such controversial issues as the delineation of borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem, the effort is further hindered by the political divisions on both sides. Olmert is under a cloud because of a corruption investigation, while the Palestinians are split between the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement holds sway. As a result, there is deep skepticism among Israelis, Palestinians and independent analysts that there is any chance of achieving US President George W. Bush's goal of “resolving all outstanding issues” before he steps down in January. At a peace conference he held in November at Annapolis, Maryland, Bush also said the two sides had agreed to “make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008.” Olmert said on Monday there could be agreement on borders and the Palestinian refugees this year but that a full deal resolving claims to Jerusalem was not a “viable possibility.”
