View From Washington

Washington

While Israelis continually ponder the fate of their
government, officials here have steadfastly refused
to comment on the government crisis in Israel or
on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's tenu-
ous hold on the reins of power.
State Department spokesmen continue to insist
that the controversy is a matter of internal Israeli
politics, and that they expect it will not affect the
Middle East peace talks. But in private, admin-
istration officials are increasingly gloomy about
the prospects for a resumption of Israeli-Palestin-
ian talks.
Mr. Netanyahu's political problems, they fear,
will make it even harder for American mediators
to end a downward spiral that began with the
prime minister's decision to build Jewish housing
in the Har Homa section of Jerusalem, and Yassir
Arafat's "green light" to terrorists.
The government mess in Jerusalem reached its
peak as Mideast envoy Dennis Ross mounted his
latest Mideast rescue mission, and contributed
to the failure of that effort. Now, with Mr. Ne-
tanyahu's future uncertain, officials here lack a
fallback plan for how to get the two sides back to
the table and stem the tide of violence that is slow-
ly widening the gulf between them.
"The peace talks were in bad shape before Bibi's
recent political troubles," said a longtime Mideast
analyst here, "but there was a feeling in the ad-
ministration that what they've done in the past—
persistent coaxing and gentle squeezing of both
sides — would eventually set things right again."
But Mr. Netanyahu's close brush with indict-
ment in the Bar-On affair and growing doubts
about his leadership even among coalition part-
ners "mean that he has been gravely weakened,
and that his options are more limited," this source
said. "There's a feeling that he'll be even less like-
ly to take risks to restart the peace process than
he was before."

Mr. Ross brought a package of confidence-build-
ing proposals to Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Arafat
two weeks ago that included a resumption of se-
curity cooperation, bolder efforts by Mr. Arafat to
clamp down on terrorists and an Israeli freeze on
new construction in disputed West Bank areas and
east Jerusalem. Mr. Ross also pressed for an Is-
raeli commitment to a more substantial West Bank
redeployment in August, when the second with-
drawal mandated by the Hebron accord is sched-
uled to take place, and more consultation with the
Palestinians over its extent.
But administration officials concede that Mr.
Netanyahu's weakened position will make those
concessions even less likely. Their hopes for a na-
tional unity government that would give Mr. Ne-
tanyahu the political backing to break the impasse
were dashed last week when Labor leader Shimon
Peres ruled out joining the government, at least
for now.
State Department Mideast experts hope that
Mr. Netanyahu's political weakness will force him
more to the political center — but fear that he will
choose instead to reinforce his right-wing core con-
stituency.
Last week, there was talk that Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright would be heading to the region
soon to lend her presence to the effort to salvage
the Israeli-Palestinian talks. Palestinian author-
ities have-urgently requested her direct interven-
tion.
But this week, administration sources indicat-
ed that she is likely to wait for the results of yet
another mission by Mr. Ross early in the month.
There were repOrts that Ms. Albright will meet
with Foreign Minister David Levy in Washington
late this week. Ms. Albright, sources here say, is
unlikely to make travel plans until officials here
believe her presence can make a difference in the
faltering talks. ❑

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