tel aviv | Normally, a botched Palestinian attack on Israeli troops would not raise eyebrows. It would become just another dry statistic recorded in more than four years of fighting.
But the mine that was detonated alongside an Israeli tank in the southern Gaza Strip last week, causing no casualties, was noteworthy in that it happened at all. Otherwise, relative quiet reigned, a testament to the truce talks led by new Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
“The dialogue is making very good progress,” Abbas told Palestine Television in an interview. “I can say we are bound to reach an agreement very soon.”
Just over the border with Israel, there was another show of confidence. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened his Cabinet in Sderot in an act of solidarity with residents reeling from months of Palestinian rocket strikes.
“There is calm now,” Sharon told fellow ministers, alluding to Abbas’ efforts. “We don’t know if this is a genuine change yet. We hope so. But one thing is clear — if terrorism resumes, we will act” militarily.
American officials this week said they were encouraged by Palestinian efforts to restore calm and by Israel’s response, creating an opportunity for progress toward peace.
“This is the most promising moment for progress between Palestinians and Israelis that any of us have seen in several years,” William Burns, U.S. assistant secretary of state, said in Cairo on his first stop of a regional visit.
According to reports, Abbas was close to reaching an informal cease-fire agreement with terrorist groups that would remain in force for a month — the period independent analysts believe the newly elected Abbas needs to reform his security forces.
Hamas said a truce would be conditional on Israel suspending all military operations and on other unrealistic demands, such as the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
In a major step, Abbas deployed thousands of Palestinian Authority police around northern Gaza’s border with Israel last week, providing a human buffer to ward off rocket launches.
More police were to be deployed this week in central and southern Gaza — though not on the perilous Philadelphia route along the border with Egypt, under which Palestinians dig arms-smuggling tunnels.
But for a lasting truce, Abbas aides say, Israel will have to reciprocate by scaling back its military operations and releasing Palestinian security prisoners.
That may prove agreeable to Israel, which already has agreed to coordinate security with the Palestinian Authority before its planned withdrawal from Gaza later this year.
“Until Abbas proves himself serious about diplomacy, a strategy of coexistence, we are thinking in terms of tactics,” a Sharon confidant said. “There is nothing wrong tactically with helping his truce along.”