the loan-guarantee saga is going
to end in a compromise. Con-
struction will continue over the
Green Line, particularly in
"Greater Jerusalem" (meaning
the part of the city annexed in
1967 and a belt of bedroom sub-
urbs surrounding it) while Israel
will get something less than a
‘-'' blanket pledge of $10 billion in
guarantees spread over five
years.
The most likely formula is an
annual review not only of
- Jerusalem's fiscal needs, based
on the rate of immigration, but
' of the progress made on the eco-
nomic reforms it has pledged to
effect in return for the infusion
of capital. Some $4 billion in
guarantees now is one figure that
has been reported.
Prime Minister Rabin is sched-
' uled to wrap up these terms with
President Bush during a visit to
' the United States on Aug. 10.
But first he had to get past the
pitfall of the date for renewing
the peace talks Originally slat-
ed to reconvene in Rome in
September, the negotiations were
rescheduled unilaterally by Mr.
'-:Baker for Washington on Aug.
10, the day now set for a Rabin-
'Bush summit.
b r
-,
Mr. Rabin was not about to
haggle over the venue. But he let
it be known that he was "very
displeased" with the date. Not
only because he hadn't had a
chance to choose, let alone prop-
erly brief, new negotiating teams,
but because the reason for the
hasty resumption of the talks in
the American capital, a mere five
days before the start of the Re-
publican National Convention
would be politically transparent.
Clearly, he did not want to be
used in that way.
In the end, Mr. Baker moved
the resumption of talks to the end
of August. But the incident point-
ed to the main wrinkle to be
ironed out in the wake of his vis-
it. Israelis agree that it's won-
derful to have friends; in fact
their dwindling number was one
reason why the Likud was voted
out. But though it's good to be
back in the arms of the world's
one power, Yitzhak Rabin - aloof
and suspicious by nature - is
keenly aware that the Bush-Bak-
er embrace could turn into a po-
litical bear hug.
And that is a prospect which,
especially in this election year,
he is particularly eager to avoid.
Coming
Out Of
Shock,
The Right
Rises
Again
The opposition to Rabin
in Israel is preparing itself
for a return performance.
ILsfr 12TFderi
erusalem — After watch-
ing, horrified, as the Ra-
bin government carried
out 100 days worth of new
departures in its first 10
days, Israel's right-wing
opposition has woken up.
Everyone was wondering what
had happened to the Eretz Israel
faithful as Yitzhak Rabin cut and
slashed his way through 15 years
of Likud legacy. Right after tak-
ing office, the new prime minis-
ter settled a mass sit-in at a
Nablus university without blood-
shed and without the army
storming the campus, by allow-
ing six armed Palestinian ac-
tivists to go free to Jordan.
He welcomed James Baker to
Israel, assured him that this was
li
a wholly new government, and
flew to Cairo and held his tongue
as Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak urged him to be even
more forthcoming to the Pales-
tinians, while the Palestinians,
not to mention the Syrians and
Jordanians, were standing pat,
offering nothing.
Where were the settlers?
Where was the Likud? Where
were the tough little parties on
the far-right? What was this si-
lence?
The breakthrough came when
the government announced that
more than one-third of the homes
scheduled for construction in the
West Bank and Gaza would not
be built, and that about a dozen
highways aimed at providing
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