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While at Heartland, your loved one will be welcomed into our facility which features a friendly, attentive staff, tasty meals and activities. you'll have the added serenity knowing your loved one is receiving around the clock professional care in a secure and comfortable environment designed with the health, safety, and well- being of our residents. Whether you use respite care on a regular basis, or just for a special occasion, call to learn about our short stays and affordable rates. music reviews °tin Entertainment. Catch the hest 11/24 Relax! Your loved one is in good hands. 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. ❑