This lenient PLO reaction would only weaken its already fragile internal status and encourage Israelis to deal with the matter similarly; if the Palestinian Palestinians don't care why should Israelis and if the PLO doesn't set on the alarm why should the world care too! May be the PLO should be reminded of Israel's reaction to the electoral victory of Austria's far right leader Jörg Haider in 1999 to entice it into action?
Internally, the PLO's arguments with Hamas are based on accepting the US-Israeli conditions as a prelude to being courted by the international community as a peace partner, but Olmert-Lieberman deal would eliminate even the prospect of finding the old ever-illusive Israeli partner, which weakens the basic PLO argument in the internal divide.
Courting Lieberman, or "Ivet" according to his Russian name, into Israel's strategic decision-makers' club is a bad omen that renders the Israeli government as a power without vision, be it unilateral or otherwise, which undermines the very bases for any potential bilateral negotiated settlement with the PLO and makes the resumption of negotiations farther than ever.
On Wednesday Javier Solana, embarked on a six-day mission to the Middle East to breathe new life into the stalled peace effort; his efforts have been fruitless for years; however his current effort is certain to fail on two accounts: First for being part of the US-Israeli meddling in internal Palestinian affairs unless he makes a surprise respect to the Palestinian democratic choice and engages Hanmas-led government directly; second Lieberman's rising star in Israel's politics which renders its ruling coalition a government without any vision conducive to any peace process unless Solana makes a surprise breakthrough by taking the role the PLO is not taking vis-Ã-vis Lieberman's upcoming role.
His efforts are doomed because both surprises are wishful thinking so long as the 25-member EU bloc he represents is still unable to match its political weight with its economic clout to tell Washington that the EU is its political partner and follower in world affairs.
Solana did meet Lieberman without at least balancing his move with a similar encounter with Hamas, thus legitimizing him and empowering his agenda with an EU engagement and bolstering his credentials with EU prestige. Solana also bypassed the democratically elected representative government of the Palestinian people. In both cases he was indirectly encouraged by PLO's leniency vis-Ã-vis Lieberman and militancy vis-Ã-vis Hamas.
The PLO and whoever is self-appointed, involved, asked or enforcing himself as a sponsor of peace-making should make any peace process conditional on renouncing Lieberman and his likes out of the process instead on hinging the process on the commitment of the Palestinian "functional" and apolitical autonomous government to political conditions dictated by Israel and the US, a commitment honored strictly by the PLO.
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