Some Call It Progress

Security talks resume, but Palestinian attacks increase.

DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

L

Jerusalem

urching wildly from disaster to miraculous
salvation to more death and mayhem,
emotionally drained Israelis watched with
little optimism as a new American peace
envoy tried to offer hope in the eight-month-old
violence with the Palestinians.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern

Affairs William Burns, who shuttled between Israeli
and Palestinian officials early in the week, appeared
to have engineered a round of security talks between
the two sides.
But by midweek, there was little evidence that
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's repeated calls for an
immediate and unconditional cease-fire would be
answered by the Palestinian side, which seemed
more intent on waging unilateral combat.
With the toll from Palestinian terrorism mounting
daily, Sharon and other top officials warned Tuesday

End Violence, Then Talk

Mitchell Commission report should
freeze, Israeli consul general says.

HOWARD LOVY
Special to the Jewish News

I

4.117

6/1

2001

30

srael's representative to the Midwest believes a
recently released, U.S.-led report on violence
in the Middle East is constructive, except for
one thing. It rewards Yasser Arafat, and it
rewards terror.
The report, put together by a multinational corn-
mission led by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell,
urges the Palestinians to end their violent, seven-
month-long uprising against Israel, and calls on the
Jewish state to freeze all expansion of settlements in

that Israel's unilateral policy of military restraint,
enunciated by the premier a week ago, could not
continue indefinitely.
"Both sides must declare a cease-fire, an end to
terror, violence and incitement," Sharon said
Tuesday. "We did, but unfortunately, the Palestinian
Authority not only did not make such a declaration,
but we see the opposite — an increase in violence."
For their part, the Palestinians have rejected
Sharon's cease-fire declaration last week as a public
relations ploy.
The only slight glimmer of hope in an otherwise
dismal week was the Ramallah meeting scheduled
for Tuesday night between Israeli and Palestinian
military officers and security officials, the first such
encounter for many weeks.
Yet even the planning for this meeting, which was
to focus on violence in the West Bank, reflected the
distance between the two sides: Israel spoke of a
resumption of security "coordination," while the
Palestinians refused to use the word "coordination"
and spoke only of security "talks."
A second round of talks, this one focusing on the Gala
Strip, was scheduled for Wednesday night. (For updates
on the talks, please see wwvv.detroitjewishnevvs.com)
Optimists hoped the meetings portend a move to
implement what both sides claim is their acceptance
of the Mitchell Commission recommendations.
A blue-ribbon international panel under former
U.S. Sen. George Mitchell called last month for an
unconditional cease-fire as the first step toward mov-
ing from violence back to the negotiating table.
Under the Mitchell panel's formula, a cooling-off
period after the cease-fire will be followed by "confi-
dence-building measures" by each side — including
a total freeze of Israeli settlement construction in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel's unity government insists that it endorses
the Mitchell report, but it has voiced reservations
over the settlement provision.
Sharon told Cable Network News television on
Tuesday that the government's policy guidelines,
which rule out building new settlements but allow
for the expansion of existing ones, are flexible

the Oslo agreement signed in 1993
and other agreements with Israel,
Arafat not only gave the green light to
violence, but he did not prepare the
not link violence to settlement
Palestinian people for peace. In fact,
incitement continues in Palestinian
textbooks and in the media.
Now, terrorism comes from main-
stream Palestinian factions, not just
the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
the "enemies of peace," like Islamic
Tzipora Rimon, Israel's consul general to the
Tzipora Rimon
Jihad or Hamas, she said. "It is an
Midwest, told a group gathered in the Oak Park
armed conflict that we are fighting,"
Jewish Community Center in mid-May that any
she said.
link between ending Palestinian violence and
In this conflict, more than 60 percent of the
freezing Jewish settlements is "unacceptable to us."
Palestinians killed are in Arafat's forces — not the
To reward the Palestinian leader for inciting his
children and civilians that get most of the media
people to take up arms against Israel sends the
attention. Israel does not set out to kill children, and
wrong message, she said during the Lucas Lecture
if some are- killed in the crossfire, it is not intentional.
sponsored by the JCC and its Institute for Retired
By contrast, she said, Palestinians who kill Israeli
Professionals. -
children are targeting them specifically, including the
"Incitement" was the word heard often when she
two 14-year-old settlers who were stoned to death
spoke about the Palestinian uprising. In violation of

