Bloody shameEditorialAs we go to press, the Wye Plantation talks are winding down and the outcome, despite Herculean efforts by the United States to nail down the specifics of the so-called interim accords, seems dim.Beyond the specifics being discussed, most troubling is what a continuing impasse bodes for the final-status deadline, looming just seven months away. Palestinians have said they will declare statehood on May 4, 1999, with or without an agreement, and with or without Israel's grudging acceptance. Israel has made clear that it would respond to such action by annexing the West Bank territories. Bloodshed most surely would occur. It is, of course, blood that has incited the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the beginning, and blood that continues to impede its resolution. During the current round of talks, a terrorist grenade attack in Beersheba left some 67 Israelis, including 24 soldiers, wounded. As the talks proceeded, Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon snubbed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a man he has called a "terrorist with Israeli blood on his hands." As U.S. negotiators, including President Clinton, persist in dispassionate analysis of substantive issues, elements essential to attaining the ballyhooed comprehensive peace, they seemingly discount the enmity that has wrought generations of war. But it is the wisdom of the late Yitzhak Rabin - peace is made between enemies, not friends - that drives the process. That is why the Israelis are rightly insisting upon revocation of the Palestinian Charter, which calls for the destruction of the land of Israel. "A matter of principle" is what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls Israel's position. And it is just such a matter of principle that will engender the courage and confidence to move the process forward. Essential to making peace is a promise to stop making war. 
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