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April 27, 2001/Iyar 4, 5761, Vol. 53, No.30
Israeli-Palestinian contacts under way
DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - There was a flurry of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy recently despite Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's repeated announcement that there would be "no talks under fire."
Amid numerous meetings between Israeli and Palestinian officials at various levels were reports that Israel is ready to consider a proposal for reviving Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
The diplomatic feelers, however, alternated with several terror attacks. Just the same, in a possible indication of the two sides' determination to continue talking, Israel and the Palestinian Authority held another round of U.S.-sponsored security talks on the evening of April 23.
The two sides agreed to "make an effort to lower the level of violence and improve security coordination," according to an Israeli statement.
The change in tone was reflected April 23 in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, which said Sharon regards a Jordanian-Egyptian initiative to end the violence and resume Israeli-Palestinian negotiations as "an important point of departure."
That was a far cry from Sharon's previous dismissal of the initiative as unworthy of serious consideration.
Israeli officials stress that the original proposal submitted by Cairo and Amman has been amended to accommodate Israeli reservations. The proposal now does not impose any preconditions on either Israel or the Palestinians, the officials said.
The initiative calls for the two sides to implement a disengagement and security accord reached last October in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt. Among its clauses:
- Israel would withdraw troops to the positions held before Palestinian violence erupted last September, lifting its blockades of Palestinian cities.
- The Palestinian Authority would stop inciting violence and would clamp down on militant groups.
- Security cooperation would resume, and eventually the diplomatic dialogue would resume as well.
While the terms of the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative have become more palatable to Israel, they nonetheless require Sharon to abandon his condition that Palestinian violence cease completely before negotiations can resume.
The vigorous public intervention last week by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who demanded that Israel end a military incursion into the Gaza Strip intended to root out Palestinian mortar squads, continues to resonate in the region.
Saying there could be no military solution to the ongoing crisis, he urged the two sides to return to diplomacy.
Israel's political and military establishments are still arguing over whether Powell's rebuke prompted the Israel Defense Force's withdrawal from the square mile of Gaza it had occupied less than 24 hours before - or whether Sharon and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer already had decided to pull back.
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