EDITORIAL: Abbas visits Japan

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, met with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in Tokyo on Tuesday. The two leaders agreed that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians must resume soon. The talks have been stalled since their framework broke down in autumn 2000.

Unfortunately, the process has a history of being resumed, only to fall apart due to a lack of progress.

For the talks to achieve substantive results, certain conditions must be met. The main hurdle to a resumption of the talks is the continued influx of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem--parts of Palestinian territory that have been under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War of 1967. Israeli settlers now number close to 500,000.

At Tuesday's meeting, Hatoyama expressed his support for Abbas' position and stressed the importance of a "complete settlement freeze."

The U.S. administration led by Barack Obama also called for a total freeze in its earlier efforts to broker peace in the Middle East. Washington has since softened its stance, noting that a freeze is no longer a condition for restarting the peace talks.

The expansion of Israeli settlements has exacerbated the anger of the Palestinians. For Abbas, who stands for a negotiated peace, freezing these Israeli activities is a non-negotiable condition. We applaud Hatoyama for supporting Abbas on this matter.

Ending the violence by both the Israelis and the Palestinians is another challenge for architects of Mideast peace. The Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, begun in December 2008, took a horrendous toll. Of some 1,300 Gaza residents who were killed, more than 300 were children.

An on-site report issued last autumn by the United Nations states that the Palestinians and the Israelis alike are under suspicion of violating international laws. As specific examples, the report cites rocket attacks by Hamas and other militant organizations in Gaza against Israel, and massacres of civilians by Israeli forces.

A year has passed since a cease-fire was declared in Gaza, but tensions are still palpable. The Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip continues, and little progress has been made in repairing damaged homes. The regional economy has tanked, and medical supplies are scarce. Without addressing this humanitarian crisis, no argument can carry any conviction--even if the peace talks are restarted.

And to further complicate matters, Abbas' leadership has been severely crimped since Gaza came under Hamas control and broke off from the Fatah-controlled West Bank. Abbas is the leader of Fatah.

The only practical approach would be to patiently untangle this complex state of affairs and seek to create a situation conducive to regional "normalization."

We hope the United States, which has close relations with Israel but is also in a position to work closely with Arab leaders, will deepen its commitment to Mideast peace to bring an end to the tragedy in Gaza.

Japan, through its humanitarian aid policy, has maintained deep ties with the Palestinians. For the Hatoyama administration, one of whose slogans is "Japan as a bridge," now is the time to assert its presence by beefing up aid for the Palestinians.

Abbas made his first visit to Hiroshima on Monday and laid a floral wreath at the Cenotaph for A-bomb Victims in the city's Peace Memorial Park. We cannot but hope that his prayer of peace will be answered as soon as possible.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 10