A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

June 21, 2007 Summit to be Held Next Week

Next week Egypt's President Mubarak will be hosting Prime Minister Olmert, Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas and Jordanian King Abdallah at a summit meeting at Sharm el Sheik in an attempt to strengthen Fatah and further isolate Hamas.  The Arab world, which at first seemed unsure how to react to Hamas, has now lined up in support of Abbas.  During a speech yesterday, Abbas, in attempting to strengthen his support, showed that he could take off the gloves and actually fight for his government.  He played a film showing the tunnel that was built to assassinate him.  This, and the pictures of him being burned in effigy in Gaza, has helped rally support for Abbas.
 
What is going to happen at the summit next week?  Clearly Israel is going to release all the funds it has been holding.  Israel will probably do its best to remove some of the roadblocks.  Will this be the beginning of new peace process?  Possibly.
 
A new opinion survey came out taken in the West Bank and Gaza. It asked Palestinians who they would support for leader: Abbas received 49% of the vote and Ismail Haniya (Hamas) receives 42%.  If Maroun Barghouti was released from prison he would receive 59% of the vote against Haniya’s 35%.  When asked what is the greatest problem facing Palestinians, 56% of those who answered said the civil war between Palestinians, 21% said poverty and 12% said the Israeli occupation. 
 
The gay pride parade took place today in Jerusalem.  7,000 policemen protected the parade.  The parade took place without the expected Haredi violence.  The Rabbis in the Haredi community ordered their members not to demonstrate.  The reason?  The subject was raising the issue within the community as kids were asking questions about homosexuality.