Arafat - Netanyahu in Washington
Palestine-Israel, International, 1/23/1998

"My two meetings with the president were excellent," said Palestinian President Yasser Arafat regarding his meetings with US President Bill Clinton in Washington.

While Arafat indicated that the meetings with Clinton, Vice-President Al Gore and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were "successful, important, and positive," no agreement was reached on the main stumbling blocks: Israeli redeployment from Palestinian territories and the Israeli settlements.

Albright indicated that negotiations have reached a very serious stage at this point and that "serious thinking" is taking place at these meetings. She said, "We want some results soon, not endless meetings," referring to the US attitude about future expectations and the possibility of Albright holding individual meetings with Arafat and Netanyahu, prior to a trilateral meeting that Albright said will be held in the future, without specifying a time frame.

"The prime minister [Netanyahu] made it clear that there will be further redeployment," said Albright. She said that the president insisted that the redeployment must be "credible and sizable."

Commenting with regard to the issue of the Palestinian National Council charter, an issue that Netanyahu has claimed as part of the Israeli - Palestinian agreement that has not been resolved as agreed upon as part of their signed agreements, Arafat has presented a letter indicating that all the procedures necessary to fulfill their obligations will be implemented, and Albright expressed satisfaction with the Palestinian letter, saying that the issues not in agreement with Palestinian commitments to Israel are "null and void."

Netanyahu, while in Washington, had attacked the Palestinians for not living up to their part of the Oslo accords. Netanyahu claimed that the redeployment phases and numbers are not specified in the Oslo accord and that the agreement specifies stringent security measures that the Palestinians are not practicing. Netanyahu cited two cases of Palestinan individuals who committed murders of Israeli citizens, and yet the killers were set free shortly after their imprisonment by the Palestinians.

In a dramatic display that some saw as a public relations ploy, Netanyahu presented two Israelis that are accompanying his entourage to the media. Those individuals reiterated that the Palestinians who killed their family members were imprisoned for a brief period and then set free.

Arafat directly and specifically replied to all these accusations, saying they are false. Arafat accused Netanyahu of "saying things that are not accurate." Arafat continued, "We asked the CIA representative to go and see for himself" if these prisoners are in jail or not.

It is apparent that differences remain and that Netanyahu by his public relations behavior is not sending positive signals that he is ready to move forward despite statements to the contrary. Netanyahu seems interested in proving his point of view more than showing interest in accommodating the Palestinians by constatnly piling demands and claims against them.

President Clinton said that the US "can only facilitate peace" and not make peace, he said that the two side alone can make peace.

It remains to be seen whether Netanyahu will provide a breakthrough at this difficult stage of negotiations by delivering his constituency as he has publicly said he would, or will he use this lack of progress as a tool to weaken Arafat, as many Palestinians are expressing great anger against Israel's intransigence, and a lack of progress may "ignite them" as Arafat himself stated.

Previous Stories:
  Agreements and differences between Clinton and Netanyahu   (1/21/1998)
  Arafat and the Holocaust museum again   (1/20/1998)
  No more redeployment maps - Israel piles demands   (1/14/1998)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search