ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged Tuesday to begin negotiations next month for a possible peace agreement, but their speeches before representatives of 40 countries — including Arab nations with no diplomatic ties to Israel — laid bare the deep grievances between them and the tough compromises that will be necessary to forge a lasting deal.
The conference, held at the U.S. Naval Academy, marked the most intense U.S. effort to restart talks in the seven years since they collapsed at the end of the Clinton administration. President Bush indicated Tuesday that pursuing a peace deal that eluded his predecessors will be a central element of the final year of his presidency, and he agreed to a broad U.S. role in overseeing implementation of any agreements.
“I believe now is precisely the right time to begin these negotiations,” he told the delegates. “America will do everything in our power to support their quest for peace, but we cannot achieve it for them.”
Bush, who has typically remained wary of intervening personally in such negotiations, spent only three hours in Annapolis and left Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in charge of most of the one-day gathering.
Notably absent were representatives from Iran and Hamas, the militant group that won Palestinian legislative elections and now controls the Gaza Strip — effectively half the population of any future Palestinian state. Neither party was invited, and Hamas condemned the conference as a waste of time. Iraq, Kuwait and Libya received invitations but did not send delegates.
Before giving his speech, Bush read aloud a joint statement that the two sides had painstakingly negotiated over the past two months. A deadlock over the statement was broken only minutes before the conference started, mainly by the watering down or striking of phrases that troubled each side.
In a sign of the difficulties, talks had dragged on as late as 4 a.m. Tuesday and the statement still did not specifically address any of the core issues dividing the two sides or mention previous U.N. resolutions that are supposed to form the basis for future talks. Negotiations are supposed to begin on Dec. 12, with the aim of completing them by the end of Bush’s term.
In the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, thousands of Hamas supporters rallied in the streets against the peace conference, and a second armed Palestinian movement vowed to intensify its attacks on Israel, saying, “The only dialogue with the enemy will be with rifles and rockets.”
The demonstration that filled Gaza City’s wide central avenue came a day after thousands of Israelis, also opposed to fresh negotiations to create a Palestinian state, marched in Jerusalem.
The street protests showcased the on-the-ground complexities awaiting Israeli and Palestinian leaders as they try to translate the pageantry of Annapolis into substantial peace negotiations in the months ahead.
Several hundred Palestinian demonstrators also assembled in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron on Tuesday to denounce the Annapolis meeting. In Hebron, Palestinian police fired on demonstrators, killing one Palestinian and wounding three others.
Israeli rejectionists, who fear losing Jewish settlements in the West Bank if a Palestinian state is created, have been more muted in their public criticism of the conference. Some analysts speculate that it’s because they see only a slim chance of success.
