This Week

At A Crossroads

Israelis, Palestinians and international community
are looking at new directions.

DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

A

11-out war — or a return to peacemaking.
Both of those options seemed closer this
week as Israel and the Palestinians inten-
sified their 16-month armed struggle,
while would-be negotiators intensified efforts to res-
urrect peace talks.
The latest escalation in the Palestinian intifada
(uprising) was the use by Hamas, for the first time,
of ground-to-ground missiles. Two homemade
Kassam-2 rockets, packing nine pounds of high-
explosive, landed in Negev farmland Sunday.
Those launches caused no damage, but the missiles'
range is enough to wreak havoc if launched from the
Israeli police officers check the car used by Palestinian
West Bank at Israel's heavily populated coastal strip.
Israel last week intercepted a shipment of missiles on attackers in Beersheba, Israel, on Feb. 10. A pair of
Palestinian gunmen opened fire Sunday on the street
its way to Jenin, a city on the West Bank border with
outside a large Israeli military base in the southern city
Israel. On Tuesday, Israeli officials were investigating
of Beersheba, killing two women and seriously wounding
what they believe was an abortive missile launch from
five
people before they themselves were shot dead.
the area of Nablus, also in the West Bank.
The missiles seemed a clear Palestinian challenge
to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, given his
Ahmed Karia, speaker of the Palestinian Parliament,
repeated warnings that firing missiles would provoke calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state
an Israeli reaction entirely different from anything
immediately after a cease-fire has been stabilized,
yet undertaken. Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin
and before other i s sues are negotiated.
Ben-Eliezer spoke Tuesday of the possibility of reoc-
The proposal, pushed most energetically by
cupying a large swath of land along the Green Line
France, was discussed by the 15 E.U. foreign minis-
(post-Six-Day War borders) to push launchers back
ters in Spain last weekend. It reflects the European
to where missiles couldn't threaten Israeli cities.
position that Israeli and American insistence on a
Israel reportedly has warned the United States of this full cease-fire before political talks resume prevents
possibility.
meaningful progress.
For its part, the Palestinian Authority did not try
The E.U. proposal — and the worldview behind
to curb the escalation, but instead released dozens of it — sets up a possible confrontation between
suspected terrorists from jail, arguing that they were
Europe and America on Mideast policy.
in danger from Israeli bombs. Others were freed by
The Bush administration has taken a particularly
mobs while PA police looked on impassively.
tough line with Arafat since a series of deadly terror-
Some Israeli analysts argue that Palestinian
ist attacks in early December ruined an American
Authority leader Yasser Arafat, far from seeking a
peace mission undertaken largely in response to Arab
cease-fire, wants to provoke a disproportionate Israeli
pressure. Arafat's standing was further weakened by
reaction that will widen the conflict to the rest of the
evidence of PA involvement in an attempt to smug-
Middle East and force international intervention.
gle 50 tons of weapons from Iran to Gaza — which
Despite the situation on the ground — or perhaps Arafat then denied in a letter to President Bush.
because of it — two new diplomatic initiatives to
Europe, on the other hand, has been much more
bring the sides back to peace talks were put on the
critical of Israel, arguing that Arafat can't really be
table this week.
expected to crack down on terror when he is under
Israeli siege in Ramallah.
The Europeans say Israel and a new Palestinian
New Proposals
state should immediately exchange recognition, to
The European Union is pushing a peace package
be followed by international recognition of Palestine
involving immediate recognition of a Palestinian
and the holding of elections there.
state and elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Arafat likely would win a strong vote of confi-
At the same time, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon
dence in the elections, enabling him to get tough
Peres is promoting a plan that he drafted with
with Palestinian terrorist groups, or so the theory

2/15
2002

28

goes. A renewed mandate also would undercut
Israeli attempts to bypass Arafat and develop a more
moderate Palestinian leadership.
Negotiations then would take place on outstand-
ing issues, including the borders of the two states.
Both Britain and Germany have signaled reserva-
tions to the plan. Their respective foreign ministers,
Jack Straw and Joschka Fischer, were due in the
Middle East late in the week and were to meet with
Sharon and Arafat.
Straw told his colleagues in Spain that Israel needs
stronger security guarantees, as it is being attacked
by Lerrorists daily.
But even the British and Germans are said to be
uncomfortable with what Europe sees as the blanket
support the Bush administration is giving Israel, and
the lack of diplomatic effort — as the Europeans see
it — to break the deadlock.
Israel dismisses the E.U. plan as "divorced from the
reality on the ground," in the words of one highly
placed source. Israel, of course, welcomes the strong
U.S. backing, but Sharon's aides concede that Bush
and his team did not endorse Sharon's assertion, dur-
ing his visit to Washington last week, that Arafat is
the "obstacle to peace" and needs to be replaced.
Though exasperated with Arafat, the White House
does not favor his removal at this time. Israeli analysts
say Bush's primary concern is to keep the Israeli-
Palestinian confrontation relatively controlled while
Washington prepares a possible strike against Iraq.

Peres Plan

Meanwhile, Peres is circulating to Israeli cabinet
ministers a four-point plan that he and Karia devel-
oped, presumably with Arafat's blessing. The pro-
gram provides for:
• A full cease-fire and implementation of the
Mitchell Commission recommendations, which
include a freeze on Israeli settlement construction in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip;
• Mutual recognition between independent states.
The recognition would be based on U.N.
Resolutions 242 and 338, which call on Israel to
withdraw from "territories" — the Arabs would like
to interpret this as "all the territories" Israel con-
quered in the 1967 Six-Day War;
• Final peace negotiations to be concluded within
12 months; and
• International peacekeeping forces and aid
machinery to bolster the agreement.
Peres is canvassing support from Shas, the opposi-
tion Shinui Party and even the right-wing National
Union-Jsrael, Our Home bloc. However, political
observers say he is unlikely to win much backing,
especially since his own Labor Party is split over the
wisdom and practicality of the proposals.
Even Labor Party head Ben-Eliezer dismissed the
plan as unrealistic and impractical, as did Sharon.
Some Laborites contended midweek that the
Palestinians are demanding a side proposal guaran-
teeing a complete Israeli withdrawal from the entire
West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem, setting
the borders of the future Palestinian state.
While many Labor politicians would not object to
those borders, it is foolhardy to concede them before
negotiations even begin, some warned. ❑