International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Nov. 14, 2002

The United States continues to press on with efforts to sell its new "road map" to an Israeli-Palestinian permanent settlement, but Israelis are pessimistic that the Palestinians can be persuaded to institute real reforms and curb terrorism.

US envoy David Satterfield met Jordanian King Abdullah and Prime Minister Ali Abu-Ragheb on Wednesday for talks on Palestinian reform and the latest international peace initiatives. Satterfield will be joined by counterparts from the EU, US, Russia, Norway, Japan, the IMF and World Bank when the "Madrid Quartet" Task Force meets at the end of the week.

A US State Department spokesman in Washington said the task force would focus on efforts to advance Palestinian civil and institutional reforms "that make possible free, fair and credible Palestinian elections in early 2003."

The American efforts to push the new "road map" to a Palestinian state are continuing in part to quiet Arab opposition to Washington's attempts to disarm Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. But with Palestinian terrorism unabated and an election season now on in Israel, chances of progress on the diplomatic front anytime soon are slim.

Israeli Foreign Minister and prime ministerial hopeful Binyamin Netanyahu declared this week that his first act, if elected, would be to exile Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. In addition, Netanyahu seems to be closing the narrow gap with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the race for Likud chairman over the issue of Palestinian statehood.

In an interview on Israeli TV Channel Two last night, Sharon suggested that such a state was not only inevitable, but already existed for the most part. Sharon indicated that he still favors "reaching a diplomatic arrangement" with regard to the creation of a Palestinian state, "that with the help of God will also bring peace." Sharon, however, remains emphatic that no such "arrangement" can be reached before there is an end to the relentless terror attacks targeting Israeli civilians.

Recent assessments of the Palestinian Authority's record of reform according to the measures outlined by US President George W. Bush in his June 24 policy speech are bleak, underlining Israeli fears that the international community will not deal even-handedly with Israel if and when it returns to the negotiating table. Israeli officials argue that while the PA does nothing to address the continued incitement and implicit approval of terrorist atrocities against Israeli civilians, it is not a fit partner for peace.

There appears to be little US and European expectation as well of an end to Palestinian terror. The European Union-sponsored talks between Fatah and Hamas in Cairo to achieve a one-year truce on suicide attacks inside Israel have ended without agreement, and Palestinian terror militias in Gaza issued a strong warning today to the PA against trying to stop their "operations."

Meanwhile, the official anti-Israel incitement continued. The Wednesday edition of the PA's official daily newspaper, Al-Ayyam, featured a front page obituary of "heroic" Islamic Jihad commander, Iyad Sawalaha - directly responsible for two of the most deadly bus bomb attacks this year - at the Meggido and Karkur junctions - claiming 31 Israeli lives. Sawalaha was killed by IDF troops earlier this week. The same edition published a poem by a 12-year-old on its children's page, celebrating Shahada - death for Allah - through suicide bombing.