Security First

Ross' subtle allusion to a controversial Israeli settlement policy
marks a two-pronged U.S. approach.

AVI MACHLIS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

U

nited States Middle East
peace envoy Dennis Ross
made good on Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright's
promise to put security at the top
of the agenda this week.
But although Israeli officials
were pleased at the "security
first" approach when Ross began
his latest mission to restart peace
talks, they were soon to find
out settlements were not far be-
hind.
"The U.S. mission may for-
mally have a title of security
first," said Professor Martin
Kramer, director of the Dayan
Center for Middle Eastern Stud-
ies at Tel Aviv University, "but
I think there will be a subtext,
and that will be settlements and
Har Homa above all."
Early in Ross' visit this ap-
peared to be the strategy. Ross
made clear after his first meet-
ing with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu that
restoring "an essential security

underpinning" to the peace signposts for a short-term revival
process was his priority.
of the talks, and one ground-
But he also said there was "a breaking compromise proposal for
political dimension that has to be the long term.
addressed," a subtle allusion to Is-
The first principle, said Albright,
raeli settlement policies that Pales- is ensuring Israel's security
tinians say is at the root of the through a "100 percent" Palestin-
current peacemaking crisis.
ian anti-tenor effort and full se-
With this cautious, two-pronged curity cooperation as a prerequisite
approach, Ross appeared to be car- for negotiations. Netanyahu sus-
rying out the peacemaking guide- pended planned peace talks and
lines laid out by Albright last week. demanded a Palestinian crack-
Speaking in Washington, Al- down on terror groups following
bright presented a U.S. road map the deadly suicide bombing in
for peace in a milestone speech on Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda
the Middle East. Her guidelines market two weeks ago.
were welcomed by Palestinian
Arafat on Monday agreed to
leader Yassir Arafat and Ne- crack down on Islamic militants.
tanyahu alike. This in itself was An American official said Arafat
an achievement, since the Pales- apparently was swayed by the
tinians have criticized the U.S. in promise of a U.S. peace initiative
the past for being biased toward that would address Palestinian
Israel. Albright also said she complaints.
would make her first official vis-
Next, said Albright, each side
it to the region later this month must "avoid steps that undermine
if Ross makes progress in his me- the other's confidence and trust."
diation effort.
She noted that Palestinians con-
The U.S. road map included two sidered Israeli settlement policies,

and specifically the decision to
build in disputed east Jerusalem,
to be such moves.
Albright made clear security
would be the "primary focus" of
Ross' mission. But as Ross' allu-
sions to political issues implied, he
could not ignore Palestinian de-
mands to address Israel's settle-
ment policies as well.
After his first day of shuttling,
Ross was upbeat. He already had
managed to broker a face-to-face
meeting between Arafat and Shin
Bet security chief Ami Ayalon and
Netanyahu aide Yitzchak Molcho.
Another meeting between Israeli
and Palestinian security officials
in the presence of U.S. security of-
ficials was in the pipeline. These
meetings were "a step in the right
direction" toward re-establishing
security ties, said Ross.
But no major political break-
throughs were on the horizon Mid-
dle East expert Kramer said it was
unlikely any compromises would
be announced during Ross' visit.
'Whatever concessions might be
made will probably wait until Al-
bright comes to the region," he
said.
As Ross labored to build confi-
dence, Arafat and Netanyahu en-
gaged in a bitter war of words.
Arafat said a series of harsh eco-
nomic sanctions and security mea-
sures Israel imposed after the
suicide bombing amounted to col-

lective punishment and even "state
terrorism."
He accused Israel of besieging
the Palestinian people and caus-
ing starvation by sealing off the
West Bank and Gaza Strip from
Israel. The closure keeps 70,000
Palestinians licensed to work in
Israel from reaching their jobs, and
prevents Palestinians from mov-
ing freely between cities within the
West Bank.
Israel lifted the internal closure
of five West Bank towns early this
week., but the territories remained
sealed off from Israel.
Senior Palestinian peace ne-
gotiators charged Netanyahu
with taking "3 million Palestini-
ans hostage without a shred of
evidence of who carried out the
bombing."
Netanyahu dismissed Pales-
tinian claims that the closure
brought starvation. His chief
spokesman David Bar-Ilan in-
sisted the measures were not
meant to punish the Palestini-
ans but rather to keep terrorists
out of Israel.
However, early this week the
origin of the suicide bombers re-
mained unclear. Netanyahu said
Israeli intelligence pointed to
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic
group that has terrorized Israelis
in the past. But Arafat said Israeli

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