Deadly Face-Off

JAMES D. BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

uesday's emergency Mid- succeed. But the dangers of not en-
dle East summit in Wash- gaging the parties at the highest
ington, D.C., represented level were even greater."
The decision to convene a sum-
a desperate bid by the
mit
in Washington came only af-
Clinton administration to
ter
efforts
to generate a meeting in
save a peace process on
the brink of disaster after last the region were rebuffed by Pales-
week's violence in Gaza and the tinian Authority President Yassir
Arafat.
West Bank.
While seeking to dampen ex-
But it also represented a big roll
of the dice for President Bill Clin- pectations for the summit, admin-
ton, who faces voters in less than istration insiders said President
five weeks. With feelings still run- Clinton and Secretary of State
ning high over last week's deadly Warren Christopher hoped to jolt
confrontations, and without any Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin
pre-summit agreement ensuring Netanyahu and Mr. Arafat to re-
the success of the meetings, the new the stalled peace talks on a
diplomatic initiative had the po- higher level.
To avoid turning the summit
tential to blow up in the president's
into a contest of dueling press con-
face.
"It's a high-risk proposition," ferences, the administration im-
said Jess Hordes, Washington di- posed a total news blackout. But
rector for the Anti-Defamation spin control was still a major part
League. "There's been some criti- of the week's activities.
The Israeli embassy put out a
cism of the president for getting in-
• _ Oa •
ad barra e of back_ •und ma-
•
•

T

111

terials on the crisis; the Palestini-
ans were scheduled to bring in
Hanan Ashrawi, a familiar face to
American television viewers, to
help with spin control.
At the first joint session of the
summit, Jordan's King Hussein
"gave what everyone described as
a very emotional appeal to these
parties to honor the commitments
both have made to peace," Mr. Mc-
Curry said.
On Tuesday, participants kept
a tight lid on the content of the dis-
cussions. But by Wednesday morn-
ing, American and Israeli sources
had made it clear that while the
mood of both the Netanyahu-
Arafat meetings and the sessions
between the foreign ministers was
positive, the substance of the ne-
gotiations was proving as difficult
as officials here had expected. Re-
portedly, the administration had
unsuccessfully pressed Mr. Ne-
tanyahu to set a firm date for the

Israeli pullout from Hebron and for
the beginning of the "final status"
talks on issues such as Jerusalem.
At a reception on Tuesday night
for leaders of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jew-
ish Organizations, a confident,
unapologetic Mr. Netanyahu ex-
pressed anger about the Pales-
tinians' effective use of
manipulation in this latest crisis,
and about a broader attempt to
"delegitimize" the Israeli govern-
ment by discount-
Palestinians demonstrate in Gaza
ing its as Palestinians in Jerusalem, the
commitment to the West Bank and Gaza answered a
peace process. Af- call by PLO leader Yassir Arafat
ter his long private to demonstrate against Israeli
of a tunnel near AI-Aqsa
meeting with Mr. opening
Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City.
Arafat, Mr. Ne-
tanyahu told the
group that it was
too early too say if the Washington
session would result in a concrete
program to end the violence.
Mr. Netanyahu also told the

