Elusive Peace
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and said it would impede Egypt's abili-
ty to play a role in peacemaking.
Moussa later dismissed Ben-Ami's
comment, saying Egypt "shall partici-
pate in the peace process. The peace
process has no tickets that Israel
issues." Israeli officials said they hope
to persuade Egypt not to recall
Basiouny. They also had no plans to
recall the Israeli ambassador in Cairo.
The last time Egypt recalled its
ambassador was during Israel's 1982
war in Lebanon.
An Islamic summit held last week in
Qatar "invited" Arab and Muslim states
to sever all relations with Israel, but left
it to the individual capitals to decide
whether to follow this suggestion.
The Egyptian move threw into
sharp relief the gulf between expecta-
tions and realities as the Israeli-
Palestinian crisis lurches from incident
to fatal incident.
Only two days earlier, former Israeli
President Ezer Weizman and the prime
minister's security chief, Danny Yatom,
returned from talks with Mubarak say-
ing they believed he now better under-
stood Israeli concerns in the conflict.
And just hours before Cairo's
announcement Tuesday, Israeli sources
had been saying that Mubarak would
make a last-ditch effort to head off a
looming escalation.
They said he had summoned
Palestinian Authority President Yasser
Arafat for urgent talks Tuesday, follow-
ing an impassioned telephone call
from Weizman, who assured Mubarak
that Arafat is capable of reining in the
violence if he wants to.
Palestinian sources said Arafat had
not been summoned but rather had
been planning a trip to Cairo on
Tuesday, one of the frequent visits he
makes to the Egyptian capital.
In any event, Arafat decided not to go,
citing the situation in the wake of the
Israeli missile strikes the night before.
The change in atmosphere was as
swift as it was dour.
Indeed, over the weekend, the situa-
tidn had looked relatively promising.
Mood Swing
Last Friday, Arafat ordered Palestinian
gunmen to stop firing at Israelis from
Palestinian-ruled areas. Some Israeli
army officers were skeptical, saying it
was possible Arafat's order implied
approval for Palestinians to shoot from
areas under Israeli control.
This criticism, however, seemed for
a time to be disproved by events on
the ground.
Israel Defense Forces commanders
throughout the West Bank and Gaza
noticed a drop in the number and
intensity of shooting incidents follow-
ing Arafat's announcement.
True, one serious episode took place
in Gaza on Saturday, when a Palestinian
police officer attacked an army installa-
tion, killing two soldiers before he was
shot dead by Israeli troops.
But apart from that, the violence
appeared to be subsiding.
At the same time, the diplomatic
track seemed to pick up in intensity.
U.S. Middle East peace envoy Dennis
Ross held separate talks with Israeli and
Palestinian officials, and signals from
Washington suggested that Barak and
Arafat had agreed that President Bill
Clinton should try to convene another
three-way summit sometime next
month.
This was to be the outgoing presi-
dent's final effort to salvage the peace
process in which he has invested so
much time and energy.
Modified Plan
There were even hints from Israel that it
might soften its opposition to the
Palestinians' demand that the United
Nations dispatch an international observ-
er force to the West Bank and Gaya as
part of an effort to stop the violence.
Optimists suggested that Clinton
could cobble together an agreement that
would award the Palestinians their state
in more than 90 percent of the territo-
ries, with the issue of Jerusalem sover-
eignty left for subsequent negotiations.
Under this agreement, Israel would
recognize the new state. The Palestinians,
for their part, would pledge that the
remaining issues would be resolved only
by peaceful, diplomatic means.
The package would be less than the
"end of conflict" that Barak had hoped
to bring home from Camp David in
July. But the hope was that he would
be able to drum up a majority for the
deal among the Israeli electorate.
Now, after Israel's helicopter strike
on Gaza City, the Palestinians'
demand for the protection of a U.N.
force has grown more strident.
And Israel, for its part, has reverted
to its refusal to allow "the internation-
alization of the conflict," as Israeli offi-
cials describe the Palestinian demand.
With hopes of a return to the negotiat-
ing table dimmed again, attention is
focusing on the beginning of the Muslim
holy month of Ramadan this week.
Ramadan traditionally is a time of
prayer. But in the past weeks, Israel
has barred all but elderly Palestinians
from praying on Jerusalem's Temple
Mount compound. ❑