Ross delayed, Israeli initiative to bypass U.S. pressure
Palestine-Israel-USA, Politics, 3/26/1998

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross, failed to arrive in Israel Thursday and is expected to start his Middle East shuttle diplomacy Friday morning with a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and later with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Prior to his arrival, Palestinian officials called on the US to publish its own peace initiative while Israel seemed to be heading towards a new compromise by which it would restrict the redeployment of its troops in the West Bank to no more than 10.5 percent but "quality-wise it would be better for the Palestinians because it will cover areas adjacent to the Palestinian cities under the exclusive control of the Palestinian National Authority."

Netanyahu's proposal for territorial contiguity gives the Palestinians a chance to annex areas adjacent to the cities of Jenin in the northern West Bank and Hebron in the south. Cities like Nablus or Ramallah for instance cannot gain from this new method of redeployment because of the cluster of Jewish settlements that besiege the two cities.

Palestinian officials refused to react to the various scopes of Israeli withdrawal that were raised but remarked that they were not looking for a crisis. Arafat said yesterday: "We still haven't received the details of the American initiative. We don't know what it entails. Once we receive it, we'll treat it seriously because we want to make progress in the peace process."

The Israeli proposal is aimed at giving a wider margin of maneuver for Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu who had committed himself to not withdrawing his troops from any amount of area over the nine percent he suggested for the second phase redeployment. However, US pressure has become a bit less tolerable for Israel, and Netanyahu has been trying to find a way out of this pressure.

Israeli sources said the new offer by Netanyahu was the reason US President Bill Clinton decided to put off the publication of the US peace initiative and resolved, instead, to dispatch Ross to the region in order to examine how prepared the two sides are to reach a compromise on this issue.

Before leaving for Israel, Ross met in Miami with visiting Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordachai on Wednesday and told reporters after the meeting that the US and Israel were not looking for a confrontation but rather for a means of moving the peace process forward. Ross noted that Mordechai was the only person who could rule on issues pertaining to Israel's security.

But even if the question of redeployment is solved during contacts Ross will be holding over the coming days with Israeli and Palestinian officials, a number of other major issues are still pending, and they threaten to torpedo any possible agreement.

The Israeli refusal to honor the third phase redeployment in the West Bank and the question of Palestinian prisoners are expected to become major stumbling blocks on the road to reaching a compromise. Besides, the US and Israel should resolve their differences over who is entitled to judge whether the Palestinian government has stood up to its commitments in the interim agreements, mainly in the field of security.

Israel claims to have sole judiciary rights in determining Palestinian compliance with their commitments while the US maintains it also has the right to judge because of the close coordination between Palestinian and American officers on the ground and because of the capacity the US enjoys as a guarantor of the interim agreements.

Prior to Ross' arrival, Palestinian officials called on the US to exert pressure on Israel to release some 250 Palestinian prisoners who fall within the Israeli-set category of prisoners who have no Jewish blood on their hands and yet are still held behind Israeli bars. The term "Palestinian prisoners with Jewish blood on their hands" refers to Palestinians arrested for involvement in military attacks in which Israelis were either killed or injured. The Palestinians said that these prisoners were due to be released early last year, but Israel failed to honor the interim agreement clauses pertinent to the Palestinian prisoners.

Sources in the Israeli prime minister's office said the list of names presented to Israel was checked and only 20 prisoners were found with no Jewish blood on their hands.

Palestinian sources refused on Thursday to comment on the Israeli "qualitative redeployment" that was reported in the Israeli press and said they would rather leave the issue for discussion in depth between Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and Dennis Ross. "It is better to wait and receive the Israeli offer through the official channels and then react to its content," said one official in Ramallah, where Palestinian President Arafat will meet Ross.

Arafat also has another meeting with the European Union's special envoy to the Middle East, Miguel Moratinos who arrived in Israel Thursday morning for meetings with Israeli officials before heading to Ramallah to meet Arafat. Moratinos, Palestinian sources said, wants to be close to the talks Ross is holding in the region and will report to British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, in his capacity as present chairman of the EU. In his last visit to the region a few weeks ago, Cook spoke of a possible US peace initiative that would bear in mind some of the European thoughts for resolving the current impasse in the peace talks between the Palestinian government and Israel.

So far, there has been no sign as to when the US Administration will air its initiative but Israeli officials believe the outlines of the initiative and even the speech of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright detailing the initiative was written long ago, and that Albright is waiting for a green light from President Clinton to read it out in public.

A senior member of Netanyahu's bureau was quoted on Thursday as saying that "most of the details of the US initiative are acceptable from our perspective. If Dennis Ross agrees to come down a little on the percentages of the withdrawal, some two percent, and change a few other small things, we will definitely be willing to endorse it."

Previous Stories:
  Ross arrives with no initiative as right wing threatens walkout   (3/25/1998)
  Israel offers no more than 10% redeployment   (3/24/1998)
  Ross to arrive in the region this week   (3/24/1998)

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