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Main Royal Oak (N. of 11 Mile Rd.) 545-3600 nxious and tense best de- scribes the street of the West Bank during and af- ter last week's Washing- ton summit. "We are in a disastrous situa- tion," said Hebron Mayor Mustafa Natshe, whose con- stituents were closed in their homes under a full curfew dur- ing the talks. "Our people are still suffering. They lack food, they can't go to work, and their chil- dren can't get to school, while the settlers are out on the streets cel- ebrating their feast [of Sukkot]." Asked how Hebronites would react if the chief result of the talks was Israel's pledge to enter ongoing negotiations on the re- deployment in that city — among other issues — Mr. Natshe replied cautiously: "People might be prepared to wait a reasonable amount of time. But if the Israelis use that time to block the way, there will be a catastrophe." On the half-deserted streets of Ramallah, a usually bustling commercial center sealed off from the surrounding towns and vil- lages by Israeli roadblocks and tanks, the mood was of raw anger. "We didn't join in the demon- strations to embarrass Yassir Arafat or the Palestinian Au- thority," said 24-year-old Ahmad Sha'ib, a student at Bir Zeit Uni- versity and a Fatah (and thus Arafat) loyalist. "We did it be- cause we were enraged at the halt in the peace process and wanted to see some real steps. But if the meeting in Washing- ton fails, not just young people but the entire city will march on the Israeli checkpoint." Similarly, dire predictions were heard in Bethlehem and east Jerusalem. But immediately after the summit, and during the first days of negotiations at the Erez cross- ing, the Palestinians cities were calm and east Jerusalem was jammed with traffic and shop- pers, giving no hint of a prelude to violence. But that doesn't mean that the Palestinians were particularly pleased by the outcome of the Washington conclave. "The results of the summit stink," said a 31-year-old east Jerusalem engineer who would identify himself only as Mo- hammed. "All they did in Wash- ington was eat, drink, sleep and come home. But whether or not riots erupt again depends on what happens now at Erez, not what happened in Washington." Despite widespread disap- pointment in the summit, some Palestinians chose to see the full half of the glass. "Arafat was right to turn down a meeting with Netanyahu just after the fighting," said Riyad Abu Snein, a 43-year-old Bethlehem busi- nessman. "I also feel President Clinton is standing beside us. Af- ter all, he's sending his own peo- ple to babysit the talks at Erez. Surely that's a sign that he won't let Netanyahu get away with just more talk, talk, talk." Meanwhile, neither the resi- dents of Ramallah nor of any oth- er Palestinian city have marched on the nearest Israeli checkpoint. But that's not because of Prime "Netanyahu is a man you can negotiate with but not get any results from." —Ali Jirbawi Minister Netanyahu's appeal to Palestinians, on television and radio, not to lose hope. `Most peo- ple took that broadcast as a joke," said American-educated Profes- sor Ali Jirbawi, a political scien- tist at Bir Zeit University outside Ramallah. Nevertheless, the general con- sensus was that after venting anger and cementing their pre- vious ambivalence toward the po- lice, most Palestinians will await the results of the Erez negotia- tions. But Profesor Jirbawi reports that the students at his school don't expect much. "They see [the talks] as an Israeli tactic to gain more time," he said. "No one is planning any actions right now, but they'll be ready when the time comes." East Jerusalem political ana- lyst Nathalie Abu Ata predicts that the "waiting period" will last until the American elections next month. But Abdel Rahman Alm Arafeh, president of the Arab Thought Forum — an institute devoted to political and econom- ic studies — believes that vio- lence will erupt again "whenever there's some clear signal from Arafat that the Erez talks are a total disaster." And Professor Jirbawi believes such a signal is inevitable. "If I were a negotiator, I wouldn't EREZ NEGOTIATIONS page 124