U.S. seeks to jumpstart security cooperation

After a round of shuttle diplomacy by the new U.S. Mideast envoy, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to resume talks on security cooperation Monday, but the scope of the negotiations wasn't clear. ISRAELI DEFENSE Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer suggested that the security talks resume, perhaps in a few days, spokesman Yarden Vatikai said Monday. Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath, however, said the talks would cover both security and political issues, such as putting together a plan for implementing recommendations from an international commission and from an Egyptian-Jordanian initiative. Israel has said it wouldn’t resume political negotiations while Palestinian violence continued. The Palestinian side has said security and political issues must be discussed as a package. With such discrepancies between the two sides, it wasn’t clear how in-depth the talks would be or what specifically would be covered. Monday began with new Israeli incursions in the Gaza Strip. Two Israeli tanks, an armored vehicle and two bulldozers entered an area east of Karni and leveled land and olive farms, the witnesses said. One of the farm owners, Mohammed Daloul, 39, said two farms were destroyed and 70 olive trees cut. The Israeli army said it was repairing fences separating Israeli and Palestinian territories. An army spokesman said the bulldozers knocked down the olive trees to get a better view over the fence.