POLITICS-MIDEAST: Netanyahu Still Talks Tough

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jan 21 1998 (IPS) - U.S. President Bill Clinton, assuming a more active role in Middle East peace negotiations, failed to score a breakthrough with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their intensive talks at the White House, according to U.S. officials.

But officials are still hopeful that a new approach – which calls for a phased withdrawal by Israeli forces from at least 10 percent of West Bank territory which they now control – may be sufficient to get the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians back on track. Palestine Authority President Yassir Arafat is due to meet with Clinton at the White House Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who participated in more than three hours of meetings between Clinton and Netanyahu Tuesday, told reporters, “I think we are in the process of setting the stage for hard decisions.”

Netanyahu stuck to his hard line at a news conference Wednesday but did not rule out the possibility that progress could be made. “I think we’ve narrowed some of the gaps, but we still have a way to go,” he said.

Netanyahu, who spent much of his visit here since Sunday meeting Republican and evangelical Christian leaders who are strongly opposed to Clinton’s policy, said he had no plans to stay in Washington to see Arafat.

Despite efforts to keep the substance of the talks with Netanyahu under wraps, it appears that the administration has put forward a number of proposals to break the deadlock which has frozen the Oslo peace process for almost a year. In doing so, Washington, and Clinton in particular, appear to be assuming a more active role.

The Oslo agreement and subsequent accords required Israel to make a series of withdrawals from West Bank territory after handing over control of its main urban centres, which was completed one year ago when the Palestinian Authority took over most of Hebron. The so-called Hebron protocol called for a subsequent three-stage Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank’s rural areas between March 1997 and mid-1998.

But less than six months before the deadline for the three withdrawals expires, none has yet taken place.

Before the meetings here this week, the Clinton administration had pushed the Israelis hard for a “significant and credible” withdrawal – defined as between 10 and 12 percent – in the shortest possible time. The administration also called for Netanyahu to call “time-out” on the construction or expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

Netanyahu has resisted the pressure and, last week, his hard- line cabinet formulated its own proposal. It provided that no withdrawal will take place for at least five months during which the Palestinians would be required to redress some 50 “violations” of past accords.

Netanyahu repeated to reporters Wednesday some of the Israeli conditions, which include the reduction by almost half in the size of the Palestinian police force, the extradition of more than 30 alleged terrorists to Israel, and the amendment of virtually all of the Palestinian National Charter.

The Palestinians rejected the Israeli proposal almost as soon as it was released, while officials said the U.S. viewed many of the conditions to be unworkable.

Instead, Clinton put forward his own ideas on a “package” of proposals for reciprocal and simultaneous steps that would permit the peace process to resume, according to informed sources.

In place of a first withdrawal occurring all at once, Clinton is proposing it be broken down into a succession of smaller withdrawals, amounting to a total of at least 10 percent of the territory to be carried out within a few months. In exchange the Palestinians would comply with specific steps designed to meet some, but not all of Netanyahu’s security concerns.

These include resuming full cooperation, including intelligence sharing, between Israeli and Palestinian security forces, arresting Palestinians suspected of terrorist acts, reducing anti- Israeli rhetoric in the official Palestinian press, and restricting the access of leaders of the Islamist Hamas movement to mosques and schools.

At the same time, the administration made clear to Netanyahu that his cabinet’s demand that Arafat extradite alleged terrorists to Israel was not politically viable and that revision of the Palestinian Charter could also be problematic, the sources said.

U.S. officials note that cooperation and intelligence sharing actually resumed earlier this month and last week achieved notable success with the seizure of an alleged bomb factory on the West Bank.

In addition, Clinton wants Netanyahu to observe a time-out on settlement construction and move swiftly to fulfill other commitments made by Israel as part of the Hebron Protocol, including the opening of a safe passage route between Gaza and the West Bank and approval for the construction of an industrial project, airport and seaport in Gaza.

“Netanyahu is being pushed to agree to an American definition of reciprocity and simultaneous implementation,” he noted, adding that Washington’s more assertive role was made necessary due to the total breakdown in trust between Netanyahu and Arafat.

In his talks with Clinton, Netanyahu did not reject such an approach. He told reporters that “we tried in various ways to see how we can put these pieces in place, and I think some of the ideas are promising, some of them are more difficult.”

“It’s no secret we’re looking for a package deal,” he said , adding that it is “possible we’ll do it gradually and in parallel.”

Whether Arafat is willing to engage in a phased withdrawal under a U.S. definition of reciprocity and simultaneous implementation will be tested when he meets with Clinton at the White House Thursday.