An unsmiling Netanyahu posed with President Clinton and Arafat
after their hastily arranged White House meeting Monday.
A Couple Of Steps Closer
Under Clinton's prodding, Arafat and Netanyahu
narrow some di erences, but the real test is still ahead.
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
D
espite the drama of an
unscheduled Oval Office
summit, this week's meet-
ings between Prime
Minister Binyamin Netaiiyahu and
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat pro-
duced only modest gains in the effort
to resurrect the sagging Mideast nego-
tiations.
Clinton announced he is sending
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
and special envoy Dennis Ross to the
region next week to continue the dis-
cussions. He said Netanyahu and
Arafat have been invited to resume
their negotiations in the Washington
area in mid-October, possibly at
Camp David.
The sessions began with an inten-
sive round of diplomacy in New York,
where both leaders were attending the
opening of the United Nations
General Assembly, and took place
10/2
1998
8 Detroit Jewish News
against the backdrop of growing
administration concern about what
will happen on May 4, when the
interim Oslo agreement is due to end.
According to the original agree-
ment signed on the White House
lawn five years ago, the "final status"
talks dealing with the toughest issues
such as Jerusalem and Palestinian
refugees were due to be completed by
that date.
But after a ceremonial opening ses-
sion, those talks have yet to begin as
the two parties bicker over implemen-
tation of the interim agreements.
This week's meetings improved the
atmospherics of the talks, but wide gaps
remain on a number of interim issues,
including the security steps Arafat must
take before an agreement is concluded
and the final status talks can begin.
Administration officials had warned
against expecting any breakthroughs at
the summit. Their caution seemed
vindicated when the three leaders
faced reporters on Monday and used a
formulation that has become almost
routine in the deadlocked talks.
"I believe that we all agreed that we
have made progress on the path to
peace," Clinton told reporters after
the one-hour meeting.
"But there is still a substantial
amount of work to be done until a
comprehensive agreement can be
reached."
Pressed by reporters after the White
House session, Albright refused to
characterize the surprise summit as a
breakthrough, but said that the meet-
ing had accomplished one of the
administration's top goals — giving
the two leaders a "sense of urgency"
In response to a question, she said
the invitation to an October summit
does not represent an ultimatum. In
May, another invitation to the Israeli
leader touched off a furious response
from Jewish groups and the
Republican Congress when it hinted
of a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum to
the Netanyahu government.
"There were no deadlines; this was
an invitation to come to an intensive
and sustained set of meetings," she
said.
In this week's talks, Israel agreed to
the 13 percent West Bank redeploy-
ment first suggested by the adminis-
tration in January, with three percent
designated a nature preserve under
Israeli security control. But the land
turnover is contingent on better
Palestinian security cooperation, and
the parties did not spell out what that
will entail.
In a press conference just before
leaving from Andrews Air Force Base,
Netanyahu said that the three-way
summit "set up a timetable, a path
toward completing the process, and
we hope we will complete it by meet-
ing in mid-October in Washington.
This will open the way to final status
negotiations. Therefore this process is
very, very important for Israel."
But he warned that the success of
the October negotiations would