Summit Glow After Sharm summit, Israelis and Palestinians hope better times ahead. DINA KRAFT Jewish Telegraphic Agency Tel _Aviv sraelis are calling the Sharm el-Sheikh summit meeting this week the "Summit of Hope" — hope that the speeches and handshakes really will signify the end of 4'/2 years of bloodletting and despair. Tikvah, the Hebrew word for hope, was splashed in bold letters on the front pages of Israel's newspa- pers Tuesday, along with smiling photographs of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Reading quietly from prepared statements in their native languages, Sharon and Abbas tried to turn a new page at the summit, after the bloody years of the intifada. "Today in my meeting with Chairman Abbas, we agreed the Palestinians would stop all -acts of vio- lence against Israelis everywhere, and in parallel, Israel would cease its military activity against the Palestinians everywhere," Sharon said. But Sharon also issued a warning, noting that ter- rorist groups have not acceded to the truce and have pledged only a temporary suspension of attacks. "This is a very fragile opportunity, that the extremists will want to exploit. They want to close the window of opportunity for us and allow our two peoples to drown in their blood," he said. Like Sharon, Abbas expressed misgivings — for example, Israel is unlikely to agree to Palestinian demands to release all Palestinian prisoners or dis- mantle its West Bank security fence — but hazarded a little optimism. "For the first time in a long time, there exists in our region hope for a better future for our children and grandchildren," Abbas said. I Differing Views 14: 2/10 2005 28 When it came to discussing longer-term prospects, however, the rhetoric diverged. Abbas spoke of the U.S.-led road-map peace plan, which envisions an independent Palestinian state. The host of the summit, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, pitched in with an appeal to "inter- national legitimacy," diplomatic parlance for U.N. resolutions that the Arab world insists require com- plete Israeli withdrawal from territory conquered in the 1967 Six-Day War — a view at odds with the Israeli and American position, and as the historical record makes clear, even with the resolutions' stated intent. There was no covenant signed at the summit, only talk of Sharon inviting Abbas to his Negev ranch and a possible follow-up summit in Ramallah, the West Bank seat of Palestinian government. In a goodwill gesture, Egypt and Jordan Mahmoud Abbas and Ariel Sharon are shown at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit on Tuesday. announced they would return ambassadors they had withdrawn from Israel after violence erupted in 2000. Dashing Israeli hopes, however, they declined to say when the ambassadors would be returned, and one Jordanian official said the decision could be rescinded "in 10 seconds" should the peace process stall again. Even U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who boosted hopes of a breakthrough with a whirl- wind round of meetings with- Sharon and Abbas ear- lier this week, struck a note of caution. "Success is not assured, but America is resolute. This is the best chance for peace we are likely to see for some years to come — and we are acting to help Israelis and Palestinians seize this chance," she told reporters in Paris. Abbas pledged at the summit that Palestinians would cease all attacks on Israelis everywhere. Sharon in turn promised to end military actions in the Palestinian areas, if Palestinian attacks stop. "It's the intifada's graduation party," Aluf Benn wrote in the newspaper Ha'aretz. But despite the fanfare and promises of a new dawn in Sharm el-Sheikh, hopes have been strained by the years of fighting, distrust and profound sense of disappointment following the collapse of the 1993 Oslo peace accords. The question that violence-weary Israelis and Palestinians are asking is what the words will bring. Both sides know the road ahead will be a difficult one. The newly elected Abbas faces the daunting task of reining in terrorists over the long term. Sharon must press ahead with his planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, despite the rift it threatens in Israeli society. Still, even a verbal agreement to cease hostilities marks the most concrete step forward since the death of Yasser Arafat, Abbas' predecessor, in November. Daring To Hope "I'm finding myself optimistic in spite of myself," said Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. "I'm not sure it's a good thing, because the great fear of those of us who initially supported Oslo is that we are going to be taken for a ride again."