With a US deadline just a day away, Israel and the Palestinians prepared Tuesday to deliver their verdict on President Bill Clinton's make-or-break peace plan that involves concessions on some of the most heartfelt issues in their decades-old conflict.
The Palestinian negotiating committee is due to meet later Tuesday to evaluate the proposals, although a top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said it may need more time to make a decision.
Israel's caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak is to convene his security cabinet Wednesday to prepare a response, ahead of a possible summit on Thursday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key mediator in the Middle East peace process.
"This is the time for decisions and the government of Israel is seriously considering the ideas currently on the agenda," Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami said.
Clinton, keen to strike a long-term accord before he leaves office January 20, has given the two sides until Wednesday to respond to his proposed solutions on some of the most intractable issues such as Jerusalem, refugees and territorial control.
His peace efforts, which included a round of talks in Washington that wrapped up Saturday, come after almost three months of raging violence that has claimed the lives of more than 350 people, most of them Palestinians.
Barak, counting on a peace deal that may be his only chance of winning a February election for prime minister, said Monday he would agree to the compromise proposals but was awaiting Arafat's response.
"I believe if Yasser Arafat accepts things as they were presented by President Clinton, we are also compelled to accept them," he said.
If the two sides accept the proposals, Clinton is expected to hold separate meetings with Barak and Arafat next week before a three-way summit.
"If we succeed in putting an end to 100 years of war with 80 percent of the land of Eretz Israel (the biblical lands of Israel) in the hands of the state of Israel that would be a historic victory for Zionism," Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israeli television.
Arafat said Monday, however, that there were still "many obstacles," and top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said the Palestinians were seeking clarifications from the United States about the peace plan.
"I cannot say that we will be ready, but for sure there will be a Palestinian response, which will be transmitted to the US side after consideration and consultation with the Arab brothers," he told Al-Quds newspaper.
The Palestinian negotiating committee is due to convene at 6:30 pm (1630 GMT).
"The ideas that we received from the US president need more study. It is very difficult in this short time to achieve final conclusions," Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio.
Israeli radio said the accord being discussed was in fact a "declaration of principles" that would pave the way for a few months of further negotiations before taking effect on the ground.
Clinton's proposals reportedly involve Israel turning over control of Arab neighborhoods in occupied east Jerusalem to the Palestinians along with the al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount.
The Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, would remain under Israeli sovereignty.
There would be no right of return to Israel for the some 3.7 million refugees made homeless after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, with only a small number allowed back to Israel for family reunification.
Israel would withdraw from 95 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip, territories it has occupied along with east Jerusalem since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Currently, the Palestinians have full or partial control over 40 percent of the West Bank and some 60 percent of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Barak is due to meet with Mubarak in the Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh for the first time since the October summit there, an Egyptian presidential source said, although there was no confirmation from the Israeli side.
While Israeli commentators suggest that neither Arafat nor Barak wants to be the one to reject the Clinton plan, a new government in Israel could derail any accord.
Right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon, challenging Barak in the February 6 poll, has said he that if he became premier he would not be obliged to honor any deal signed by Barak.
Violence flared again Tuesday although no deaths have been reported for at least three days.
Witnesses said an intense but brief gunbattle between Israeli troops and armed Palestinians erupted near the northern West Bank town of Nablus early in the day, but there were no reports of injuries.
In another development, Arafat's Palestinian Authority released from prison Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a top activist from the Islamic militant group Hamas, the last to have been held by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
His release came as Hamas said one of its militants was behind a suicide bomb attack on a cafe in the northern West Bank on Friday that left at least three Israelis wounded -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
