This article was originally published by Al-Ahram Weekly and is republished with permission.

A Palestinian boy walks among fishing boats along the coast of the southern Gaza Strip. (Hatem Omar, Maan Images)

As widely expected, the latest encounter between Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which took place at the latter's official residence in West Jerusalem, ended indecisively. According to Israeli press sources, Olmert and Abbas "glossed over" final status issues, with each side voicing its respective stand in this regard and that is all.

Saeb Ereikat, a key aide to Abbas, told a press conference in Ramallah Tuesday afternoon that the talks were confined to "generalities " and didn't discuss "details". Refusing to raise expectations, Ereikat said the PA would reject the creation of a state with temporary borders, or one resulting from "an open-ended process".

Olmert reportedly proposed that mutually agreed upon issues be taken up for higher-level negotiations, while "contentious" issues be left until the final phases of the peace process.

Needless to say, "contentious" issues are actually the core issues that define the Israeli-Arab conflict, such as the right of return to 1948 Palestine of millions of Palestinian refugees uprooted from their ancestral homeland, the fate of occupied Arab East Jerusalem, and the borders, territorial contiguity and sovereignty of a prospective Palestinian state.

According to Palestinian officials who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly, the two sides are still talking at "cross-purposes". Both the PA and Israel say they accept President Bush's vision of a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. However, while the PA understands Bush's vision to imply a fully sovereign state covering 100 per cent of the West Bank, including 100 per cent of East Jerusalem, Israel envisages a state on 90 per cent of the West Bank (east of the infamous Separation Wall, excluding the bulk of East Jerusalem) and with minimal territorial continuity.

The Israeli definition of the West Bank doesn't include "Greater East Jerusalem" which makes up nearly 20 per cent of the territory Israel occupied in 1967. In addition, Israel refuses to discuss the central issue of the right of return on the ground that the return to Israel of a significant number of the estimated four million refugees would undermine Israel's Jewish identity and put an end to Zionism.

In addition, Israel is insisting on retaining as much as possible of the spoils of the 1967 War, including all Jewish settlements, especially those located within the Jerusalem envelope, such Maali Adomim, Efrata and Gush Etzion.

Related stories Killing with impunity When the occupation gets really filthy Closure crushing Gaza economy The one clear solution Lobbying for a foreign country

As to Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, Israel reportedly proposes joint control by followers of the three monotheistic religions (Islam, Judaism and Christianity). Palestinians are almost sure to reject the Israeli suggestion.

While resisting Abbas's requests for effecting a final settlement based on UN resolutions 242 and 338, Olmert reportedly told Abbas that priority ought to be given to economic development, bolstering Abbas's regime vis-à-vis Hamas, and developing Palestinian governing institutions. At least one Palestinian official scoffed at the idea, accusing the Israeli premier of "seeking to lower our political ceiling, and bribing us economically".

During the meeting, Olmert reportedly thanked Abbas for the continuing crackdown on Hamas.

Meanwhile, Abbas voiced scepticism on the upcoming American-backed regional conference, slated to take place in November, saying the conference would be futile if it didn't address the core issues of the Israeli-Arab conflict. "If there is a clear framework, including final status issues, we will welcome this and attend the conference," he said on PA government-run TV.

Abbas also said he was still unsure about the timing, participants, and agenda of the planned conference. "There are no answers to these questions," he said following a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "I spoke with Rice today and she has no answers either."

"I think President Abbas is quite worried that the much-talked about conference will fail to achieve a real breakthrough. He is anxious about the consequences of such a failure on his own standing among Palestinians," said Palestinian political commentator Hani Al-Masri.

Al-Masri told the Weekly that failure of the conference might eventually force Abbas to talk with Hamas from a weaker position. "He is facing a real dilemma, first of all he is already in a weak position given the national rift with Hamas; second, he can't expect the Israelis to give him much, and the Palestinian people won't accept any deviation from known national constants."

Al-Masri criticised Abbas for lacking "another viable alternative" in case the November conference ends in failure. "Unfortunately, the Abbas regime is giving total trust to the Israelis and the Americans. He is implementing nearly all the Israeli demands with regard to stopping all armed resistance, isolating Hamas and cracking down on its supporters in the West Bank, while Israel refuses to reciprocate [with action], such as to stop assassinating Palestinians and freeze settlement expansion."

Meanwhile, Hamas called Abbas's meetings with Olmert "futile and pointless." Ahmed Youssef, political advisor to the Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, told the Weekly that Abbas was committing "political suicide by putting all his eggs in the American-Israeli basket".

"He thinks that by appeasing the Americans and the Israelis further, they would give him what he wants. He is being gullible and naïve in thinking that Hamas is a liability, because Hamas is actually an asset for the Palestinian negotiator, not a liability," Youssef said.

Haniyeh Monday urged Abbas and his aides to disregard "Zionist pressure" and immediately initiate a meaningful dialogue with Hamas that would put Palestinians in a better bargaining position vis-à-vis Israel.

Meanwhile, PA security forces, in cooperation with Fatah militiamen, continued to crack down on Hamas supporters and its social and cultural infrastructure throughout the West Bank. On Tuesday, Ramallah-based Prime Minister Salam Fayyad ordered the closure of 103 charitable organisations, many of which give food and money to the most impoverished segments of society.

The US and Israel have been pressuring the PA regime to crack down on Hamas charities on the grounds that these charities form the social-base for public support for the Palestinian Islamic movement.

Moreover, PA security agencies continued to violently arrest and round up Hamas activists and supporters, occasionally in coordination with the Israeli occupation army. Hundreds of activists have so far been detained, with some reportedly subject to beatings and torture.

In the northern West Bank, where the bulk of these abductions and roundups are concentrated, faceless Fatah militiamen abducted a Hamas supporter on Monday, shooting him four times in his feet before fleeing.

According to Mustafa Sabri, a pro-Hamas journalist from the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya, who himself was recently released from a Fatah prison, held for his affiliation with Hamas, Fatah is conducting a "reign of terror" in the West Bank. "They are simply trying to avenge what happened in Gaza by tormenting and terrorising innocent people," Sabri said.

A few weeks ago Mohamed Raddad, a pro- Hamas student at An-Najah National University in Nablus, was shot and killed by a Fatah gunman in full view of hundreds of students for no known reason.

The Fayyad government refuses to investigate such incidents. The reason given is ostensibly the absence of governmental control over Palestinian security agencies.

The showdown between Fatah and Hamas continues to poison the collective psyche of the Palestinian people. According to a recent survey conducted by a credible pollster based in Jerusalem, nearly 80 per cent of respondents said they didn't trust either Abbas or Haniyeh.

Last week, a close aide to Abbas intimated to the Weekly that up to 22,000 young Palestinians have filed immigration applications from the occupied territories, with many citing the depressive after effects of the enduring crisis between Fatah and Hamas as their reason for seeking futures elsewhere.