Steve Bell, Guardian, 2005

"This is a time of opportunity," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a former cabinet minister and ally of Mr Abbas. "We could create a momentum that would entrench the peace by showing the Palestinian people the benefits and hold out the promise that the Israelis are serious about ending the occupation in a just way."

But Mr Abed Rabbo said there was a widespread suspicion among ordinary Palestinians that, while the Israeli government is keen to end the violence, it wanted to stave off political talks so that Mr Sharon could carry through his plan unilaterally to impose the borders of a Palestinian state, annexing a significant part of the West Bank to Israel. "Sharon clearly wants a final status without negotiation," he said. "He's turning the wall [the West Bank barrier] into a border and they're expanding the settlements in order to annex the maximum amount of Palestinian land."
"The Israelis in their inimitable way say 'let's not rush into talks'. The deception behind the Gaza thing is the whole world is looking at Gaza when the real game for Sharon is the West Bank.

"It's all down to the attitude of Americans. Sharon will continue inventing all kinds of excuses and pretexts. He will have more and more pretexts. He's occupied with one thing. He wants to complete the map he has in his mind for the West Bank. Unless the Americans interfere and say stop, it won't change."