Erekat: If Olmert, Abbas achieve peace, they'll be biggest people in Jerusalem since Jesus

     The peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians is within reach and this is the time for tough decisions, said top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Thursday. In a conference held at Tel Aviv University on the Israel-Syria peace negotiations and their influence on the Palestinians, Erekat said that if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas succeed in striking a peace deal, they would be "the most important people in Jerusalem since Jesus walked in it." At the conference, hosted by the Peres Center for Peace and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, was attended by the head of the Israel-Syria peace movement Alon Liel and former Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin. Erekat told the conference that only six months remain to hammer out the peace accord. Referring to ongoing negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian teams in recent months, he said "these are serious and long-term talks which aim to achieve an agreement that will be one total package that includes all the issues." "There are solutions to all the issues, all that is required is decisions," Erekat added. Addressing the recently relaunched indirect talks between Israel and Syrian, the Palestinian negotiator said that he encourages the sides to achieve an accord, because such a deal would be in agreement with Palestinian interests. However, he went on to say, he did not believe the negotiations were serious enough because he did not see the United States joining the talks in the near future. (23,54)