Oct. 14 - President Clinton announced today he will take part in a meeting
between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak
aimed at ending the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades.

"I will do everything I can to minimize the violence and to do all
the preparation necessary to maximize the chances of a successful
meeting," Clinton said this morning at the White House, before leaving on
a political trip to Colorado.
The meeting will take place at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has offered to serve as host.
Administration officials said Clinton will depart for Egypt on
Sunday.
Despite the good news, Clinton stressed the situation remains tense.
"The situation appears to be calmer, but the path ahead difficult,"
Clinton said.
Arafat has been calling for an international commission to
investigate two weeks of recent violence, but Barak has said he only
trusts the United States to look into the clashes that have left nearly
100 people dead - nearly all Palestinian.
Clinton promised that a fact-finding mission focusing on the events
that triggered the outbreak of violence would be part of the talks.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was to fly to Egypt today
to meet with President Hosni Mubarak.
Diplomats seemed to be trying for guarantees that a Barak and Arafat
summit would result in a formal agreement to end the violence.

Wrangling Conditions

Administration officials said Arab leaders had been pressuring Arafat to
agree to a summit, but the Palestinian leader was refusing to attend until
Barak withdrew troops from the entrances of Palestinian cities, lifted a
siege on West Bank towns and agreed to the establishment of an
international commission of inquiry into the violence.
Nabil Shaath, Arafat's planning minister, said Arafat had agreed to a
summit in Egypt once he had learned that Barak had agreed to allow "food
and medicine into the Palestinian territories and the withdrawal of
Israeli forces."
But Barak had said a summit should be held with no conditions, and it
was unclear whether Barak had agreed to the conditions outlined by Shaath
- loosening a closure on the territories to allow food and medicine to
enter, and pulling back from Palestinian towns.
Shaath described the agreement to the summit as based on "new
conditions" - an apparent reference to the omission of Arafat's persistent
call for an international commission.
Barak's office said it was "positive" that Arafat had dropped his
conditions and said the prime minister had already expressed his
willingness to attend a summit - as long as there were no preconditions.
Barak still expected Arafat to "take necessary steps," he said,
including re-arresting dozens of Islamic militants released from
Palestinian jails over the last few days. It was significant that the
Barak statement avoided referring to the measures as "conditions."
The office said that the summit would not address "substantive" peace
issues, only a cease-fire.
Barak had said that if Arafat was serious about ending the violence
he would come unconditionally.
If not, Barak said he had his own conditions, including disarming
Palestinian militias and a clear statement from President Clinton blaming
Arafat for 16 days of bloodshed. President Bill Clinton had been pushing
for a summit with no conditions. In a press conference today, Annan told
reporters that the summit will occur with no preconditions.

A Political Minefield

Israel and the Palestinians appeared to be stepping back from the brink of
war. But relations have been so strained that Arafat and Barak asked
international mediators, including Annan and British Foreign Secretary
Robin Cook, to carry messages back and forth.
The goal of a summit would be to reach a truce, not to restart
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The fighting has cut deep wounds on both
sides, with Barak and Arafat each saying they no longer had a partner for
peace.
"The minimum we need is a cessation of hostilities and cease-fire for
one to go to the table and talk. I think that should be done and I think
it is going to be done," Annan said after his meeting with Arafat.
Barak is also fighting an increasingly difficult battle for political
survival. The Israeli parliament reconvenes in two weeks, and the prime
minister now only has the support of 30 of 120 legislators. Israelis have
been badly shaken by the violence and a new poll indicated that if
elections were held today, Barak would take a beating.
As a result, the Israeli leader has invited Sharon's Likud party to
form an emergency coalition, a step seen by the Palestinians as a signal
that Barak has already abandoned peace talks.
However, Rabbi Michael Melchior, a Cabinet minister, said an alliance
with Sharon might only be temporary. If Arafat returns to negotiations in
good faith, "then I think it will be difficult to stick … with the
national unity government," Melchior said.
Uncomfortable Precedent
Administration officials said even if the summit materializes, some time
might be needed before the Palestinian and Israeli leaders can meet face
to face.
An earlier round of U.S.-led mediation in France and then in Egypt
failed to bring the fierce fighting to a halt. Barak said that in Paris
the two leaders had been presented with a document to end the unrest but
"Arafat refused to sign and went back to violence."
Barak's foreign minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, said that Israel expected
the summit to offer a solid way out of the violence and back to peace
talks.
"We are not prepared to navigate into a tunnel without an exit," he
told Israel radio. He said Israel still expected Arafat to re-arrest
dozens of Islamic militants released from jail over the last few days.

Violent Follow-ups

Since the Paris summit, the situation has exploded into warlike conflict.
Across the West Bank Friday, Palestinians marched as part of a "day
of rage" to protest Israeli missile attacks a day earlier on Palestinian
command centers - retribution for the brutal killing of two Israeli
reserve soldiers by a Palestinian mob at a police station in the West Bank
city of Ramallah.
Leaders of Arafat's Fatah movement there vowed to continue fighting
and gunbattles later erupted between some of the demonstrators and Israeli
troops manning a checkpoint north of Ramallah.
Around Hebron, two Palestinians were killed during fighting with
Israeli troops. Both were to be buried today. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli
troops and Palestinians exchanged fire after a pair of roadside bombs were
detonated near a Jewish settlement.
There were no immediate reports of clashes on today.
The 16 days of clashes were triggered by the visit of Israel's
hardline opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, to a Jerusalem shrine holy to
Jews and Muslims.
On Friday, Israeli police trying to prevent new unrest at the site
blocked Muslim worshippers under the age of 45 from gathering for weekly
noon prayers at the Noble Sanctuary or Temple Mount, as it is known to
Jews. For the past two Fridays, deadly clashes have erupted there during
prayers.
Elsewhere in Jerusalem, undercover Israeli police seized two Arab
teen-agers throwing stones at the U.S. Consulate.

ABCNEWS' Andrew Morse and Gillian Findlay in Jerusalem, Rebecca Cooper at
the State Department, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, Josh Gerstein at the
White House, Bassem Barhoum in Ramallah and The Associated Press and
Reuters contributed to this report.

Back to Dark Savant Ministries