Something smells...

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that

[t]he leaders of Israel and the PLO on Wednesday endorsed a proposal by visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair to hold an international conference to assist the Palestinians with political and security reforms and to pave the way for revival of negotiations under the Middle East peace plan known as the road map.

Blair met with Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem and Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, in each case assuring them that the conference

would neither supplant the road map and reopen long-stalled negotiations toward a final peace deal, which Israel had warned against, nor simply serve to pressure the Palestinians into meeting Israeli demands.

Rather, he said, it would be aimed at "addressing the Palestinians' needs."

Sounds good. "Sounds" being the key word. On the smell test, the score is much lower. Expand on what it is the Palestinians supposedly "need," and the focus suddenly shifts.

[I]t is crucial that "we have in place a detailed and viable plan" for reform of the Palestinian Authority and eradication of terrorist attacks on Israeli targets, Blair said in a joint news conference with Sharon.

Blair stressed: "There is not going to be any successful negotiation or peace without an end to terrorism. The absence of terrorism then can create the situation in which a proper negotiated settlement can take place."

So again, as it always seems to be, the actual focus, as opposed to the claimed one, is on exactly what Blair denied it would be: How the Palestinians can best meet Israeli demands without being allowed any of their own, how the Palestinians can organize themselves to address Israeli concerns rather than their own. The PA is to be "reformed" with the goal of achieving for Israel what Israel has not been able to achieve for itself despite over 30 years of trying: ending terrorism in the absence of justice.

Abbas said that he, too, supported the proposed London conference. He responded to Blair's calls for an end to terrorism, however, by saying that Israel needed to curtail the growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank before the road map peace process could be resumed.

"We expect from the Israeli side a stop to the expansion of settlements. ... We think addressing final-status issues is extremely important. We are available to start very quickly on negotiations" toward a full peace agreement under the road map, Abbas said.

There was no indication that at either site, Jerusalem or Ramallah, that Blair suggested any steps Israel needed to take for a "successful negotiation or peace."