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34 FRIDAY, MAY 5, 1989
American Red Cross
Blood Services Southeastern Michigan Region
Elections In Territories
Only Part Of The Plan
WOLF BLITZER
Capital Correspondent
A
senior Bush adminis-
tration official has de-
nied that the United
States is serving as a
mediator between Israel and
the Palestine Liberation
Organization.
"We are not passing
messages back and forth,"
said Dennis Ross, director of
the State Department's Policy
Planning Staff and a key Mid-
dle East policy strategist.
"We have a dialogue with
the PLO," he continued. "We
are using that dialogue to
determine whether or not the
'PLO commitment in a
rhetorical sense to the prin-
ciples of peace can, in fact,
and will be translated by the
PLO into behaviors that will
support a practical peace pro-
cess. We are using it to deter-
mine that. That is separate
from being a mediator."
Ross, interviewed on Public
Broadcasting's "MacNeil-
Lehrer Newshour," also
denied that the United States
was representing Israel in the
dialogue with the PLO. It was
his first major interview since
becoming a key adviser to
Secretary of State James
Baker. •
"We have made it clear all
along that we would have a
dialogue with the PLO if they
met certain conditions," he
said. "They met those condi-
tions. Now we have to deter-
mine whether or not the PLO
is prepared to support a pro-
cess that can lead somewhere.
So we are making that judg-
ment as part of an overall ef-
fort on our part to be active
and promote a peace process."
Ross said that it was still
too soon to say whether the
PLO had in fact made a real
commitment to peace.
Ross urged the Palestinians
to accept a gradual, step-by-
step approach, including a
readiness to support Palesti-
nian elections on the West
Bank and Gaza as the next
step in the process.
The Palestinian uprising in
the territories has created a
new reality, he said. "What
we have to do is take that new
reality and try to channel it
in directions that are produc-
tive," he added.
"And elections can be a
kind of bridge between this
pre-negotiation phase and the
formal negotiation phase," he
continued. "But in this first
phase, we have to change the
climate. We've got to
transform the situation.
We've got to begin to build a
degree of trust between
Israelis and Palestinians so
that their perceptions of each
other begin to change. More
important than I think
anything else, we've got to use
this period to change the
psychological realities so that
what isn't thinkable today
does become possible over
time."
Ross said the Bush ad-
ministration is beginning a
process of consultations to
determine what steps must
be taken to transform the
situation in the Middle East.
The election proposal, he
said, has "captured people's
interest," including Palesti-
"We've got to
begin to build a
degree of trust
between Israelis
and Palestinians
so that their
perceptions of
each other begin
to change."
nians. "They understand
there is something there," he
said. "Elections as a kind of
vehicle, as part of a larger pro-
cess is something that has an
appeal to it?' Ross added that
he thought debate and discus-
sion so far have been positive.
Other U.S. officials continue
to insist that the PLO was
giving the election proposal
serious consideration despite
some apparently conflicting
statements made in recent
days. "It's the only proposal
on the table right now," one
U.S. official said.
The PLO's number two of-
ficial, Salah Khalaf, in an in-
terview published in the
Washington Jewish Week,
said the PLO would support
elections but only the context
of a "package deal" leading to
an end to the Israeli military
occupation of the territories
and the recognition of the
Palestinians' right to
self-determination.
Khalaf granted the inter-
view in Tunis to reporter
Larry Cohler, who noted that
the PLO was anxious to reach
out to the American Jewish
community to serve as a
bridge between the PLO and
Israel.
"We are willing to meeting
with [American Jews] and
have an open dialogue,"
Khalaf said. "Not with in-
dividuals. But we -prefer to
have it with big, well-