The Movement for Reform Judaism

Both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have played down expectations for a peace deal before the end of 2008. But all agree that the peace process is back on track, and they are joined by the head of the Reform Movement, Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield, who believes that pragmatism will win in the end.

Rabbi Bayfield, fresh back from a leadership visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, wrote in the Guardian's Comment is Free Blog that “Desperation is leading to pragmatism in Jerusalem; desperation is leading to pragmatism in Ramallah; desperation is leading to pragmatism in Washington.”

He told Gesher Chai: “The UK media were very negative about Annapolis beforehand.  I think they may have been wrong.  I still have a glimmer of hope and read into the playing down of the expectations of an immediate deal, a sensible pragmatism and optimism made very cautious by past experience.”

Following the meeting, Mr Olmert told his Cabinet: “We will make an effort to hold speedy negotiations in the hope we may conclude by the end of 2008, but certainly there is no commitment for a firm timetable for their completion.”

Mr Abbas, for his part, made it clear that the most important thing was that the meeting actually took place. "The main goal of the Annapolis conference was to launch negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis and this is in fact what happened," he told reporters in Cairo after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

"Some had been under the illusion that the negotiations would actually start in [Annapolis] or that a deal would be struck," he said.

A joint understanding read out at the Annapolis conference by President George W. Bush said that the two sides would "make every effort" to negotiate a peace treaty, covering all core issues, by the end of 2008. It said that implementation of the treaty would be subject to carrying out the Road Map and that the U.S. would be the judge if both sides were keeping their commitments under the plan.

Mr Abbas said a steering committee would be set up that would begin negotiations on December 12 including on the core issues such as the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

The committee will meet continuously over the course of 2008 according to a joint document released in Annapolis.

In the document, both sides agreed to create a mechanism to monitor the implementation of a "Road Map" for peace, which calls for establishing a Palestinian state living in peace alongside a secure Israel.

"There are two other meetings after Annapolis, one in Paris and the other in Moscow," Abbas said.

The Palestinian president later travelled to Saudi Arabia, where he held talks with King Abdullah about the Annapolis meeting, the official SPA news agency reported.

International donors are expected to meet in Paris later this month to coordinate a three-year aid programme for the Palestinians, and next month Russia is to organise a follow-up meeting to the Annapolis talks, according to a European diplomat.

Meanwhile, the Quartet’s Middle East envoy, Tony Blair, said that a deal on Palestinian statehood by the end of next year was realistic, but a fully functioning state would take longer.

“I think a negotiated settlement is possible in 2008,” Blair told France 24 television. But he added: "It will take some time for that negotiated settlement to be put in place fully."

"Facts on the ground" were also needed to ensure "what actually happens in the daily lives of Palestinians and Israelis (is) consistent with political talks and a Palestinian state," he added.

Mr Blair acknowledged there had been scepticism about whether an agreement could be reached before President Bush leaves office after Presidential elections next November.

"I spoke with him in the White House not very long ago and I am sure he is completely and personally determined to make it happen," Mr Blair said. "You can debate about how much America put into this a few years ago but, today, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are absolutely up for it.”

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