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December 19, 2003/Kislev 24 5764, Vol. 56, No. 13
Saddam capture opens window for peace
RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein's capture creates new opportunities for Israeli-Palestinian peace, Israeli and U.S. officials agree - and the Bush administration already is looking for results.
In recent meetings with top U.S. officials, Israeli officials said, the message was clear: Now is the time for Israel to return to the negotiating table with the Palestinians.
The United States wants Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian Authority counterpart, Ahmed Qurei, to meet immediately "with no preconditions," according to a senior Israeli official.
A senior advisor to Sharon said Saddam's capture would end speculation among Palestinians that the Bush administration had been cowed by Iraqi insurgents and was pulling back from involvement in the Middle East.
"In the last few weeks, Abu Ala and others have been biding time, not meeting with Sharon," Zalman Shoval said, using Qurei's nom de guerre. "They felt that time was on their side. Maybe they were thinking America would not stay in Iraq and would lose interest in the region. What happened with Saddam sends the opposite view."
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he told U.S. officials that Israel was ready for a Sharon-Qurei summit and blamed Qurei for dithering by insisting that Israel first make good-faith concessions to the Pale-stinians.
Shalom suggested that Qurei was deferring to Palestinian Authority Presi-dent Yasser Arafat, who has been frozen out of the peace process by Israel and the United States because of his support for terrorism.
"We feel Abu Ala is trying to appease Arafat more than necessary," said Shalom, who met Dec. 15 with Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security advisor.
Shalom said Israel ap-preciated the value of the cease-fire Qurei is trying to negotiate with Palestinian terrorist groups, but only if it is a step toward dismantling those groups, as required by the "road map" peace plan.
Shoval said the capture would nudge the Israeli-Palestinian peace process forward because it under-scored U.S. determination to stay the course in the region.
"The military victory in Iraq and the capture of Saddam Hussein sends a strong message that America will not tolerate terror and is determined to go ahead with democratization," he said.
Judith Kipper, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said U.S. success will lead to pressure being exerted on all parties in the region, including Israel.
All eyes now are on Sharon, she said, citing a speech the prime minister was due to give at an Israeli national security conference Dec. 18 in which he is expected to outline what Israel is ready to do for peace.
A senior U.S. envoy to the region last week blamed the Palestinians for the lack of progress toward peace but said Israel also was not doing enough to help Qurei succeed.
"The Israeli government has done too little for far too long to translate its re-peatedly stated commit-ment to facilitate Pale-stinian reform into reality," said David Satterfield, a deputy assistant secretary of state.
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