Enough

Summit aims to end bloodshed.

©New York Times, published October 15, 2000

JERUSALEM -- After more than two weeks of spiraling violence that cost nearly 100 lives, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Saturday to meet with President Clinton in Egypt to seek a truce and perhaps even a way back to the peace table.

[AP Photo] Brothers of a Palestinian youth killed by Israeli gunfire cry Saturday at his grave site in the cemetery of the Al Fawar refugee camp.

The high-stakes meeting, announced here by the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, is scheduled for Monday in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Given the delicacy of the situation, however, plans could still go awry if the two sides set new conditions.

Annan, who has shuttled between Jerusalem and Gaza City against a backdrop of rioting, lynch mobs and rockets, suggested that the two sides start by cooling tensions on the ground. They continued on a low broil Saturday in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron.

"The shooting should simply stop," he said.

In the face of intense international pressure, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, dropped his central precondition for a meeting. He had demanded an international inquiry into the recent violence, which Israel rejected, saying a fact-finding team made up of Palestinians, Israelis and Americans would suffice.

But Palestinian officials said that their preconditions would merely metamorphose into conditions at the negotiating table.

And given how badly the fragile trust between the two sides has been ruptured in the past 17 days, the meeting is bound to be a tense exercise in breaking down intransigent positions.

Palestinian officials warned that the consequences of a failed meeting would be devastating. "If it fails, all hell will break loose," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator.

It has been a month since the Sept. 13 deadline that Israel and the Palestinians had set for achieving a permanent peace accord and settling all the contentious issues between them. In that month, a negotiating stalemate has deteriorated into the most severe violence here in years, threatening the accomplishments of seven years of peacemaking and the very concept of peace itself.

Against that backdrop, the summit meeting is at best a weighty challenge and at worst a risky venture.

In a brief statement at the White House, President Clinton acknowledged the challenge, speaking three months after a 15-day summit meeting at Camp David failed in its goal of producing an accord.

"We should be under no illusions," he said. "The good news is the parties have agreed to meet, but the path ahead is difficult."

Rhetorically, both sides still say they are committed to peace. But if the meeting were to produce a cease-fire, that would be an accomplishment.

Experts say it could take a long time to rebuild a negotiating relationship after the extreme collapse in trust these past two weeks.

Israeli officials said that they believed that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, concerned that the violence would spread, played a major role in persuading the Palestinian leader to drop his objections to a meeting.

Mubarak had originally opposed the convening of an Israeli-Palestinian meeting before an Arab world convention that is scheduled to open next Saturday. But he changed his mind.

"We know that Mubarak kept calling Arafat all the time," said Nachman Shai, a government spokesman. "In the Arab world, there has been much concern about what happened here. Egypt, Jordan suddenly realized that this wave of violence might not be contained to the West Bank and Gaza, and might spread into their own countries in a destabilizing way."

Western diplomats here said they believe that it was Annan who played the pivotal role.

Arafat, who wants to internationalize the peace effort to dilute America's dominant role, responded well to the entreaties of the U.N. leader, his associates said.

Annan said that while the two sides set no preconditions for the talks, they did make "suggestions." The Palestinians said that they succeeded, through Annan, to persuade the Israelis to loosen border restrictions to permit the flow of emergency supplies from Egypt and Jordan.

But the Israeli Foreign Ministry sent out a bold-type fax protesting that Israel has never blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The Palestinians are also pressing for Israel to withdraw its tanks from the West Bank, where the Palestinians said the Israelis are terrorizing the population. Israeli officials said they would probably be able to accept that demand -- in Sharm, and not before.

"That is something we will not fight on," Shai said.

Israel, though, is pushing for the Palestinians to again arrest dozens of Islamic fundamentalist group members who were released from prison this week.

In Nablus, a spokesman for Hamas, the leading Islamic group, said that the Palestinians had started complying with that request.

"Fourteen of our 40 members who were released this week have been summoned by Palestinian security," said Sheik Jamal Salim. "To the best of my knowledge, they are back in jail."

For Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the summit meeting is a political risk as well as a diplomatic one. He has proposed forming a national emergency government with the right-wing opposition. But his negotiations with the rightists are frozen as he prepares to head to Egypt. While the right wing backs his effort to end the violence, it would not support his taking the extra steps to revive the peace effort. So it is a juggling act, given his shaky hold on power.

Israeli and Palestinian officials say that it will be difficult for the two sides to face each other with the ugly images of the last week fresh in their minds -- the Palestinian mob killings of two Israeli reserve soldiers in Ramallah followed by the Israeli helicopter gunship attacks.

Some Palestinians condemn the summit meeting as a move to quash what they see as their war of independence. Most are skeptical.

"I don't hope much from this," said Fatma Shamalekh, a Gaza resident whose son, Marwan, was shot dead by Israeli troops on Oct. 6. "How can we talk about peace when the Israelis are killing our young people?"

In the Old City, an Israeli and a Palestinian ended a heated discussion by agreeing that the leaders must find a way out of the crisis.

"See, we can reach agreement, so can they," Ibrahim Abu Salim, a shopkeeper, said.

"What's the alternative?" said Yonatan Friedberg, describing himself as a disillusioned peace camper. "We use war planes, they use suicide bombs and we all go up in flames and down in smoke? Peace -- that is another story. But a cease-fire is something our leaders should have the common sense to accomplish."

Summit goals

Monday's summit in Egypt will have a limited agenda, according to statements by President Clinton:

GOAL: Arrange cease-fire to violence that started Sept. 28.

AT ISSUE: Both sides claim to be acting in self-defense.

GOAL: Form commission to examine the violence.

AT ISSUE: Israel wants limited commission headed by U.S. Palestinians want commission headed by U.N.

GOAL: Arrange to restart broader peace talks.

AT ISSUE: Many Palestinians and Israelis say they do not trust each other enough to resume negotiations.

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