Netanyahu aide: No permanent deal with Palestine, withdrawal from Syria's Golan possible
Regional, Politics, 8/21/1998

While Israel plays up hope for a second phase withdrawal from occupied Palestinian land as called for in the Oslo agreement, it is closing hope on a "permanent" deal with the Palestinians. This, as Israel talks of an Israeli withdrawal from Syria's occupied Golan Heights.

Palestinian sources Friday downplayed Israeli press reports indicating that the Israeli second phase redeployment in the West Bank was to be finished within a few days. "Nothing is moving and we wonder where do the Israelis bring their assessments from," said a senior Palestinian official, noting that no achievements whatsoever have been reached over the past few days of contacts between the Palestinian and Israeli officials.

A senior Israeli source was quoted Thursday evening as saying that signing an agreement on the second phase withdrawal in the West Bank was "a matter of days" and noted that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was personally involved in contacts between the two sides. The source has apparently based his assessment on the meeting that took place earlier in the week between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's special advisor and aide, Yitzhak Molcho.

The Palestinians, however, admitted that Molcho presented proposals which manifested for the first time that Israel appeared to be ready to transfer 13 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinian government. But, the Palestinian sources said, Molcho presented a set of possibilities for solving the controversy over the 3 percent of land which Israel calls nature reserve and the Palestinians want to be fully under their control.

The killing of a Jewish settler in Hebron and the ongoing feud between the Palestinians and Israelis over the presence of Jewish worshippers in Joseph Tomb in Nablus have added to the tense relations between the two sides. Palestinian and Israeli officers negotiated a settlement for the tomb site in Nablus in which the Palestinians agreed to allow Jewish worshippers to spend their nights in the place only until September.

In an interview with Maariv Hebrew daily on Friday, Netanyahu's political advisor, Uzi Arad, said the Israeli government "is making an attempt to clean off the table from all the obligations of an interim arrangement, in order to go into final status talks with a clean table." Throughout the whole process of talks between the Palestinians and Israel, the former have argued that Netanyahu has always been looking for ways to untie his government from the commitments the previous government made via the Oslo Agreements. The Palestinian charges were vehemently denied by Israel until Arad confirmed them bluntly in his press interview.

Arad ruled out the chances of reaching a permanent arrangement, and not peace, with the Palestinians and said that Israel should prepare itself "for the more probable situation, whereby there won't be a permanent arrangement."

On the Syrian track, Arad, formerly a Mossad senior officer, was asked if he saw any true signals coming from Syrian President Hafez Assad that Damascus intended to return to the negotiation table. Arad said that President Assad would be very pleased if the present government in Israel would be willing to give him what he wants. Arad made headlines last week when it was disclosed that he supported the "depth of withdrawal equals depth of security arrangements" in the Golan Heights and if Syria provides answers for security arrangements, it may be possible to consider.

The interview with Arad, and his earlier comments in the round-table conference in Texas a few months ago were the first time that a senior Netanyahu government official spoke explicitly of withdrawal from the Golan Heights. "The term withdrawal is indeed included," he said. "There is a formula that appears unofficially in the papers coming from security sources, whereby the size of the withdrawal is proportional to the amount of security."

Arad noted that the significance of this formula stems from the difference it has from the old formula of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who spoke of "peace for peace" as the basis for a potential agreement with Syria. Arad said that the other significance of the current formula is a trade off between proposed security with evacuated area. "Therefore ostensibly, full security would mean complete withdrawal.

Meanwhile, France yesterday called on Israel not to go ahead with its plan to build 2,500 homes in four settlements on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel occupied after the 1967 war. The Israeli ministerial committee for the Galilee and Negev affairs chaired by Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday decided to expand four settlements in the southern Golan: Ramout, Maleih Ghamla, Kanaf and Hadnif. Five additional settlement complexes will be also built in Negev, in the southern part of occupied Palestine. Syria has spoken of these Golan building plans move as a provocation.

France through its Foreign Ministry spokesperson said "We hope that this decision will not be confirmed, and even less executed. In any case, this type of announcement can only be detrimental to the efforts that aim at restarting the negotiation between the parties" adding "You know our position: Just like the remainder of the international community, France does not recognize Israel's annexation of the Golan plateau in December 1981. This area remains an occupied Syrian territory."

Previous Stories:
  Syrian report on Israel's violation of human rights in the Golan   (8/20/1998)
  Arafat frustrated by U.S. inaction   (8/19/1998)
  Syrian FM: We're not in a hurry to have an unjust peace   (8/18/1998)

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