Left Vs. Right

Peres' new peace plan puts Sharon on the hot seat.

The talks that Sharon claims were limited only
to a cease-fire instead produced a diplomatic plan
that is roiling Jerusalem.

IDAVID LANDAU

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

ro

rime Minister Ariel Sharon's highwire act
was exposed in all its fragility this week
by revelations of a new peace plan
devised by Shimon Peres and the speaker
of the Palestinian parliament.
When details of the plan
leaked over the weekend,
Sharon blasted it as "seriously
harmful to Israel." Right-wing
ministers who remember how Peres, the foreign
minister, foisted the Oslo accords on Yitzhak
Rabin — accords that the right regards as an
unmitigated disaster — demanded that Peres be
fired.
Yet it was Peres who finally brought Sharon
around.
Threatening to pull his Labor Parry out of the
national unity government, Peres forced Sharon
to admit on Monday that he had been aware all
along of the talks with veteran PLO negotiator
Ahmed Karia, and that he had approved them.
Fighting to control the damage, Sharon's office
said Monday that the talks were intended
only to promote a cease-fire between
Israel and the Palestinians.

Peace Outline

Under the plan, as leaked Sunday to the Israeli
daily Yediot Achronot, the two sides would enforce
a cease-fire outlined earli-

ANALYSIS

High-Wire Act

The flap over the peace
plan highlights the politi-
cal balancing act Sharon
is engaged in as he tries
both to keep his coali-
tion together and deal
with the Palestinians.
In any case, that dis-
agreement came amid an
international controversy
over whether Israel would
allow Palestinian Authority
leader Yasser Arafat to attend
Christmas Eve celebrations in
Bethlehem, an event watched by
the entire Christian world.
Since taking office last March,
Sharon has insisted that Israel will not
conduct diplomatic negotiations with the
Palestinians as long as attacks on Israel continue.
Peres, on the other hand, argues that Israel must
show the Palestinians the promise of diplomatic
gains if it wants them to stop attacking Israel.
In this case, it seems that Peres' worldview has
trumped Sharon's.

er this
year by CIA
Director George
Tenet and begin immediately to
implement the recommendations of the U.S.-
sponsored Mitchell Committee.
That committee called on Israel to end its clo-
sures on Palestinian areas, freeze settlement activi-
ty in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, transfer
frozen funds to the Palestinian Authority and stop

"targeted killings" of terrorists.
The Palestinian Authority is expected to crack
down on terrorist groups, collect illegal weapons
and create a single armed body in place of the cur-
rent multiple factions whose lines of authority are
unclear.
All this would take place within eight weeks,
according to the Peres-Karia plan. Israel then
would recognize a Palestinian state in the Gaza
Strip and on the 42 percent of the West Bank
where the Palestinians already exercise full or par-
tial control.
That represents a turnaround from the tradition-
al Israeli bargaining position, which had dangled
the possibility of a Palestinian state as the end
product of negotiations, thereby inducing the
Palestinians to sign a final peace deal.
Under the new plan, statehood would become
an immediate benefit to lure the Palestinians off
the battlefield and back to the negotiating
table.
Talks would then commence on the issues
that derailed previous efforts to reach a peace
accord — final borders, Jerusalem, refugees and
other issues. Israel would like to conclude those
negotiations within one year, and then have two
years to implement the agreement.
The Palestinians demand a shorter
timetable: Nine months for talks,
18 months for implementation.
Peres told his Labor Party
colleagues he believed the
agreement could win full
endorsement from both
Israeli and Palestinian
leaders "within weeks."
Others were not so
sure, however.
Leading Labor dove
Yossi Beilin called the
plan "an idea that
Arafat already rejected
a month ago. Sharon
has agreed with many
things that he knows will
not be implemented,
because he has a tremendous
interest in keeping Peres inside
the government." On the
Palestinian side, Karia effectively con-
firmed the existence of the negotiating channel.
Other Palestinian sources, however, said their
side demanded more than 42 percent of the West
Bank, even in the interim phase.
For public consumption, at least, Palestinian offi-

LEFT VS. RIGHT on page 22

12/28
2001

