Ehud Olmert on Monday became the first Israeli prime minister to visit a Palestinian town since the outbreak of fighting seven years ago, meeting under heavy guard with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jericho to talk about the creation of a Palestinian state.Olmert took a security risk in coming to the biblical desert town, but also gave a symbolic boost to Abbas, who stands to gain stature by hosting Olmert on his own turf.
Accompanied by two helicopters, Olmert arrived by motorcade at a five-star hotel just a few hundred yards from a permanent Israeli army checkpoint on the outskirts of Jericho.
The meeting was held in one of the West Bank's most peaceful areas. However, it still posed a challenge to Olmert's security detail, since the West Bank cities are controlled by Abbas' weak police forces, which in June failed to prevent Hamas militants from seizing the Gaza Strip by force.
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