P.A. President Abbas, Obama Meet Monday

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Israeli media is rife with speculation about Monday's White House meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, still referred to as president though his term expired in January 2009.

According to media reports in the Israeli and Arab press, Abbas will ask Israel to add Ahmed Sa'adat and Marwan Barghouti to the convicts to be released in the last leg of a four-stage process in exchange for extending the talks to the end of the year.

Sa'adat is serving time for his part in the assassination of former Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, who was shot to death outside his hotel room in 2001. Barghouti, the former head of Fatah's Tanzim militia, is serving five consecutive life sentences, plus 40 years, for masterminding a series of terror attacks that killed and maimed numbers of Israelis during the second intifada (armed uprising).

In a letter published last June by China's official state media, Xinhua, Barghouti reaffirmed his support for "popular resistance" (terror attacks) and blamed "extremist Israeli positions and the absence of an Israeli peace partner" for the lack of progress in the talks.

It's probable that Abbas and his advisors know Israel will not agree to release either Sa'adat or Barghouti. There's even been some speculation that the last round of prisoner releases may not take place at all. Many Israeli ministers argue that Israeli concessions to the Palestinian Authority have yielded nothing but more demands.

Some are saying the Obama administration's lopsided approach -- putting the onus on Israel for the stalemated talks -- may be enough to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to agree to more "goodwill gestures" to the P.A.

In a weekend interview, Defense Minister and former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon told an Israeli television station Abbas is not a bona fide peace partner. 

"Abbas is a partner who takes, not a partner who gives," Ya'alon said. "He is not a partner for a permanent peace agreement that includes recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. He just takes back prisoners."

Ya'alon said Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), like Gaza, would be overrun by Hamas if Israel pulls out of there.

Ya'alon also has some reservations, which he's expressed in the past, about Kerry.

"I'm not sure Kerry is a fair mediator," he said. "We'll see at the end of the process."

Last February, Ya'alon told participants at a security conference in Munich he supports negotiations, but has the impression that Abbas, like his predecessor the late Yasser Arafat, is uninterested in reaching an agreement.

"I support any political engagement, but we should tell the truth to ourselves and not delude ourselves and deceive ourselves regarding President Mahmoud Abbas' intentions," he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who led talks with the P.A. during former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government and now, criticized Ya'alon's comments in a Facebook post.

Zahava Gal-on, chairwoman of the ultra-left-wing Meretz Party, also denounced him.