Olmert: P.A. must stick to principles

Israel will not deal with a Palestinian Authority government that doesn’t recognize Israel or renounce violence, Ehud Olmert said. “We will not accept any departure from these principles,” the Israeli prime minister told a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Wednesday. His comments came as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas flew to Saudi Arabia to negotiate the terms of a national-unity government with Hamas. Abbas has accepted the conditions, but Hamas does not. Olmert’s remarks appeared to make clear that an Abbas-Hamas alliance could scuttle a planned Feb. 19 summit among Olmert, Abbas and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Olmert said he welcomed Rice’s initiative, but that ultimately “there will not be a trilateral process. It will have to be a bilateral process because we believe that the only way to finally achieve something of value between us and the Palestinians is for them to come to terms with reality.”