Bush plan not expected to lead to talks
By Janine Zacharia October, 14 2001
WASHINGTON (October 14) - The Bush administration is aiming to present its vision of a final Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement, possibly including the idea that Jerusalem ought to be shared, just before the onset of Ramadan next month, as another way to garner Arab support for its war on terrorism, diplomatic sources here say.
The declaration is not expected to lead to a new round of US-led final-status negotiations any time soon. Administration officials acknowledge the ground is not ripe for such talks and insist the immediate goal remains getting the parties to adhere to the Mitchell plan for a cease-fire.
"The plan is the Mitchell recommendations. The plan is stop the violence, reduce the tension, build the confidence, get back to political process, negotiations. But we don't have peace proposals to make at this point," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Friday.
"I don't know why people are looking for peace proposals from the United States," he said.
US officials had started preparing an outline for such a Middle East statement before the September 11 terrorist attacks. They had hoped that holding out the promise of a Palestinian state in particular would help Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat "climb down from the tree" of violence, halt the intifada, and enforce a cease-fire.
A declaration of US support for a Palestinian state was to be the main incentive. But President George W. Bush "played the card" earlier than the administration wanted, one US official said, when he threw his support behind a Palestinian state last week after reports of the US plan circulated anew in the press.
While Arab states welcomed the declaration, US officials were disappointed they did not get more mileage out of the gesture in terms of cooperation.
Arab states - Saudi Arabia in particular - are not cooperating at the level the US would like to see, particularly in terms of cracking down on Saudi financial support for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Now US officials are weighing a new idea - adding to the text of the US peace vision a call for a "shared Jerusalem." Officials insist no final decisions have been made on whether to include Jerusalem, and Israeli diplomats are trying to ensure that Jerusalem, the most contentious of the final-status issues, is not mentioned.
Overall, the statement, expected to be delivered in some forum by Secretary of State Colin Powell, will talk about the need for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East based on UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338; will call on Israel and the Palestinians to implement past agreements; and might ask Israel to emphasize the importance of freezing settlement expansion, which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already endorsed in accepting the Mitchell plan.
Administration officials, hoping to get maximum effect out of the speech, want it delivered close to start of Ramadan, which is expected to fall around November 17.
"For the sake of the coalition, they really want to see advancement on the Israeli-Palestinian track," said one Israeli diplomat. "They have promised not to surprise us."
Many supporters of Israel are concerned the US could force Israel to make untimely concessions.
"I stand today to urge the administration and the State Department to clarify the unqualified support of the United States of America for Jerusalem as the inviolable and eternal capital of Israel. The United States - Christians, Jews, and all Americans - stand for the territorial integrity of Israel, and so should this Congress," Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) said on the House floor Friday.
In a Thursday night press conference, Bush said he hoped progress was being made on the Israeli-Palestinian front.
"I was pleased to see that Mr. Arafat is trying to control the radical elements within the Palestinian Authority. And I think the world ought to applaud him for that," Bush said.
The call to applaud Arafat irked some Israeli officials, who say such praise is premature and insist Arafat has done very little, if anything, to clamp down on terrorists.
Herb Keinon adds from Jerusalem:
A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, responding to persistent reports of a new US plan, said that at this time the plan is only an "outline of ideas." He explained Bush's Thursday comments as an effort "to dangle some positive political incentive in front of the Palestinians, so they take the necessary steps to implement the cease-fire."
Israeli officials have said over the last few weeks that various reports of details of a "Bush plan" are often only leaks coming from a particular school of thought at the State Department wanting to push Bush in a certain direction or "trial balloons" aimed at gauging the reaction of both sides.
Cabinet expected to ease restrictions on Palestinians
By Herb Keinon and Margot Dudkevitch October, 14 2001
JERUSALEM (October 14) - The cabinet is expected to approve the lifting of a number of restrictions on the territories today, as Israel and the Palestinians appear to be moving back to the cease-fire framework agreed upon by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat late last month.
A decision to ease up on the restrictions was taken Friday morning at a meeting of the mini-cabinet - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Peres, and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer - and senior defense officials.
During that meeting, Ben-Eliezer and Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz reportedly disagreed, with Ben-Eliezer saying that the restrictions should be lifted in areas where quiet is maintained, and Mofaz arguing that it is too early to take such measures.
Senior Israeli and PA security officials are scheduled to meet this evening, along with US representatives, to discuss pulling IDF troops back from the Abu Sneineh neighborhood in Hebron. They moved in after Palestinian snipers fired on Jews celebrating in front of the Cave of the Patriarchs on Succot.
One diplomatic official said that what is being talked about are guarantees from the Palestinians to stop the firing from there on the Jewish community in Hebron, much as the Palestinians stopped the firing on Gilo after the IDF moved tanks into Beit Jala in response to persistent such attacks.
Peres, who has been meeting with Palestinian negotiators Ahmed Qurei and Saeb Erekat every few days since his September 26 meeting with Arafat, met again with them on Friday. AP reported Qurei telling Palestinian Radio: "The Israeli side has committed to start lifting the closure within the coming two days." He did not give details except to say the measures are part of a "whole package" of reduced restrictions over the next two weeks.
Under the truce agreed upon by Arafat and Peres, Israel was to ease restrictions - including lifting the blockade around cities in quiet areas, removing roadblocks in quiet areas, and allowing Palestinian merchants and businessman into Israel - in exchange for an end to Palestinian violence and the arrest of terrorists.
The truce was frozen soon after the Peres-Arafat meeting, when the violence continued unabated. Now, however, there is acknowledgment both in the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office that there has been a degree of reduction in the violence.
One senior official in the Prime Minister's Office said that "there is some reduction in violence that gives a measure of hope. It is not sufficient, Arafat is not doing what he should do to arrest the terrorists and stop the violence, but some measures have been taken by Palestinians. We hope that that following the easing of the restrictions, they will take more measures to stop the violence and arrest those they promised to arrest."
The Palestinians are reportedly coming under a great deal of pressure from the US to take action to stop the violence, just as the US is urging Israel to keep the region calm so as not to make it more difficult to get Arab and Moslem countries into its anti-terror coalition.
Peres, meanwhile, spoke yesterday with his British counterpart, Jack Straw, and said that while the Palestinians are still not doing everything they committed themselves to do to prevent terror, Israel will announce a large number of easements on the Palestinian population.
According to Peres' spokesman, Straw called Peres in advance of Arafat's upcoming visit to Britain.
Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudaineh, meanwhile, said he is not optimistic Israel will ease restrictions, and accused Israel of looking for pretexts to avoid resuming negotiations since it does not want to move toward a final-status agreement.
"Everybody knows that the ground is almost quiet. The problem is that Israel is not happy about it," he charged.
Yet there were numerous violent incidents reported over the weekend, including bullets hitting a home and one vehicle in Har Hadar outside of Jerusalem on Friday night, Nobody was hurt in the shooting, which security officials said came from the nearby village of Katana.
The Gaza area bore the brunt of the violence. Palestinians fired several mortar shells, one on Friday morning that landed close to an IDF post near Rafah Yam. In the evening, at least one mortar shell was fired at Neveh Dekalim.
Palestinians fired at least six anti-tank grenades at IDF posts, Neveh Dekalim, and Gadid. Soldiers spotted a large bomb near Netzarim that was set to detonate near an IDF unit on Friday morning. Palestinians fired shots at army positions near Rafah, in the central Gush Katif area, at Neveh Dekalim and Gadid. A large number of grenades were thrown at IDF posts and units near the border with Egypt.
In the West Bank last night, four firebombs were thrown at Egged bus 160 as it travelled between El Aourb and Beit Umar. No one was wounded and no damage was reported.
Early yesterday morning, Palestinians opened fire at a Border Police post at Tel Rumeida in Hebron. No one was hurt. The shots came from the neighborhood of Hareth Sheikh, which was occupied over a week ago by the army in an attempt to halt Palestinian gunfire on the Jewish community.
On Friday morning near Shavei Shomron, a roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle used to transport special-education pupils from the surrounding communities. The blast badly damaged the vehicle but no one was hurt.
(Lamia Lahoud contributed to this report.)
