Israel’s YNET news reported today that — try to follow this closely — “Israel is still waiting for notification on US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s next visit to the region. Rice is delaying her arrival in order to ensure that the Israeli and the Palestinian teams have reached agreements on the statement’s principles. According to expectations, Rice may arrive in the region next weekend [n.b., that would be 23, 24, and/or 25th of November, depending on what you mean by "weekend" -- the Israeli weekend begins on Friday, which will be the 23rd] and will bring along the invitations to the peace conference. Israeli officials have estimated that the conference will be held as planned and that the statements will be made on Tuesday, November 27. Olmert is expected to leave for the United States in about a week [n.b., that would be about the 24th, a Saturday, which means that he'll probably fly at night, after the Jewish Sabbath]. He will meet with heads of the Jewish community in New York and will fly to Washington the next day. On Monday, November 26, US President George W. Bush is scheduled to have dinner with the Israeli prime minister and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. On Tuesday morning, the three leaders, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and other officials are expected to arrive in Annapolis, Maryland, about a one-hour drive from Washington. The three leaders will deliver their speeches and present the joint statement. Olmert and Foreign Minister Livni are expected to return to Israel on Wednesday”.
The YNET report that there WILL be an Annapolis event on 26-27 November is here.
The same YNET news story reports that “The Israeli negotiations team, headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, is expected to meet Saturday evening [n.b. tomorrow, 17 November] with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at his residence ahead of the upcoming US-sponsored Mideast peace conference. Four members of the Israeli delegation to Washington – including the prime minister’s chief of staff Yoram Turbowicz, Foreign Ministry Director-General Aharon Abramovich, and the prime minister’s diplomatic advisor Shalom Turgeman – are scheduled to return to Israel on Friday [n.b. 16 November] from meetings with representatives of the Bush administration in Washington. The Israeli team and the prime minister will discuss the negotiations with the Palestinians ahead of the Annapolis summit and ahead of next week’s visits to Israel by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. The Israeli and Palestinian teams may meet Saturday evening [n.b. 17 November] to continue to work on the draft of the joint statement which will be presented at the conference”.
UPDATE: At the U.S. State Department briefing in Washington today, spokesman Sean McCormack seemed to indicate that Rice would not travel back to the Middle East before the Annapolis event. Here is the exchange between the spokesman and the journalist:
QUESTION: Did the Secretary make any calls to Middle East leaders? I heard yesterday that she called Abbas. And is there any chance or is there enough time for her to visit, to make another visit to the Middle East before the Annapolis meeting?
MR. MCCORMACK: I wouldn’t anticipate that she is going to be going on any foreign travel between now and Annapolis. And she — on any given day, she’s doing a lot of different phone calls regarding the Annapolis conference, both in the run-up to it as well as what comes after Annapolis. But suffice it to say she is in close contact with all the major players involved in the — in preparing for the Annapolis conference”.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reported on Friday that “Despite Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s announcement that he plans to release 400 security prisoners ahead of the peace conference in Annapolis, the defense establishment is recommending that the government refrain from making goodwill gestures to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas until after the summit, The Jerusalem Post has learned … The goodwill gestures being considered pending a successful outcome to the summit include releasing prisoners, removing roadblocks and transferring additional territory and West Bank villages to PA security control. The government is also considering a freeze in settlement construction. ‘There is no need to make concessions ahead of the summit’, a senior security official said. ‘The Palestinians will quickly forget what we gave them before the summit and it is important to create incentives for Abbas to make the summit work’. According to a senior official, the defense establishment is examining the ramifications of a proposal being drafted to release several hundred prisoners per month after the Annapolis conference. The idea behind the plan, which has yet to be presented to Olmert, is that quiet on the ‘Palestinian street’ – required for fruitful negotiations – can be achieved by releasing a significant number of prisoners every month. ‘If the summit is successful and negotiations ensue, then it might be necessary to keep the Palestinians happy and quiet’, an official said. ‘One way to do that is to release prisoners’ … There are more than 10,000 Palestinian security detainees in Israeli prisons. The releases would be dependent on a cessation of terrorism and a commitment by the freed prisoners not to return to terrorism … The defense establishment is considering a request by the PA to transfer armored jeeps to the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank. Earlier this month, the PA deployed 300 policemen in Nablus, and has close to 20,000 policemen in the West Bank”. The JPOST article is here