Annapolis peace talk finds little resonance at home

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Stirring televised speeches from Annapolis on Tuesday about the need for peace had limited resonance among Israelis and Palestinians with memories of failed summits that led to more bloodshed.

Though it was hardliners on both sides who came out against Tuesday's resolution by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to renew negotiations, reservations were not far from the minds of moderates.

"What we need is less talk and more action. Only history can judge whether this conference will bring peace," said Dedi Cohen, 32, a lawyer in Israel's coastal metropolis Tel Aviv.

Noting Abbas's truncated authority since the June civil war in which Hamas Islamists took over the Gaza Strip, Cohen said: "The Palestinians are so torn up from within that I don't know who to believe any more."

In Gaza, Hamas held mass rallies that vowed to block any accord on permanent coexistence with the Jewish state. Similar protests in the West Bank, where Abbas still holds sway, were forcibly quelled by Palestinian police. One demonstrator died.

For Tareq Dahnous, a 26-year-old salesman from the West Bank city of Hebron, the main problem remains Israeli occupation, despite Olmert's hints at major territorial handovers to Abbas.

"This is a failed meeting," was Dahnous's prediction on Annapolis. "I wish I had an independent state, but it is difficult to achieve."

In Ramallah, Abbas's administrative centre, 35-year-old Raed Fayz praised Abbas because he "didn't make compromises on any final issues" in his Annapolis address.

Abbas and Olmert spoke in their native languages, Arabic and Hebrew, a departure from the English favored at past summits. For some, that implied their main goal was to win over skeptics at home.

DIVISIONS

Disagreement over how to tackle core issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem divided Olmert and Abbas. Within the Israeli and Palestinian societies, they form the battle lines between ultranationalists and those seeking a two-state accord.

The Yesha council of Jewish settlers, which tried and failed to scupper Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, held demonstrations in Jerusalem denouncing Olmert for his willingness to cede biblical West Bank land to the Palestinians.

Despite U.S. President George W. Bush's endorsement, at Annapolis, of Israel's drive to remain a "Jewish homeland", Yesha leader Danny Dayan accused the peace conference's host of seeking a way of salvaging his legacy after the Iraqi war.

"The transparent attempt to complete negotiations within a timeframe that will allow George Bush to get the Nobel Peace Prize will lead to a catastrophe," Dayan said.

Israeli Arab lawmaker Ahmed Tibi, a long-time adviser to Palestinian leaders, dismissed such hawkish talk.