After Israel called a time-out in peace talks on Tuesday - and then called it off just hours later - the Palestinians called their own time-out, saying they wanted an explanation for Israel's “confusing” behavior, according to The Associated Press.
The brinkmanship reflects the deadlock that has characterized the talks since the collapse of the Camp David summit in July, and comes as the United States drafts bridging proposals that could be presented as early as the weekend in a final effort to close the gaps and conclude a peace deal, said the agency.
“The Palestinian leadership decided not to resume the negotiations without having an official clarification by the Prime Minister of Israel about his decisions today, which confused us,” said a statement released after the senior Palestinian negotiators briefed Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah. “First he asked us to stop the negotiations and later in the evening he asked us to resume it.”
Israel had announced that talks would resume on Wednesday, only a day after it cancelled a meeting with the Palestinian team and declared a "time out" in the talks, an Israeli official told AFP on Tuesday.
"The contacts will continue on Wednesday," an official in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office had said.
"The contacts which were aimed at examining whether there is a basis for renewal of negotiations halted at Camp David will continue. In the course of such a framework, (Israeli negotiator) attorney Gilad Sher will meet (Palestinian chief negotiator) Saeb Erakat," the prime minister's office said in a statement, quoted by AFP.
There have been no formal, or high level talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians since, Barak said Tuesday.
"The negotiations ended in Camp David when (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat did not agree to discuss ideas raised by (US President Bill) Clinton, since then, we have had contacts and discussions, we are not closing the doors," Barak told Israeli public television.
The Israeli leader also said that the negotiations "could resume when Arafat will agree to discuss the ideas raised by Clinton during the Camp David summit" which ended with no tangible results on July 25 or ideas raised "after that.”
He did not reveal the content of the president's ideas, but another Israeli official told AFP that Israel expects Clinton to come up with new bridging proposals for Jerusalem, the key stumbling block in the negotiations, by the end of the week – (Several Sources)
Earlier Tuesday, Prime Minister Ehud Barak's security advisor, Danny Yatom, announced a time-out that would last for a few days at most.
Yatom said Israel had called for the break because it needed some time to assess the negotiations.
“There is no doubt that the Palestinians need to be not only good in public relations, but also straightforward in the negotiations,” Yatom told Israel army radio, referring to Israeli complaints that the Palestinians have rolled back on understandings reached in previous sessions.
Barak said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has not budged since the Mideast peace summit at Camp David in July, which broke down over the Jerusalem issue.
“Negotiations will be resumed when Chairman Arafat will be ready to take the ideas that were raised at Camp David by President Clinton or the ideas that were raised by the Americans since then as a basis for negotiation,” he said.
Yet, within hours, Barak spokesman Gadi Baltiansky was announcing that negotiators were to meet Wednesday to assess the talks.
The back-and-forth angered Palestinians, who said it looked as if Israel was trying to set them up to take the blame for the talks' collapse.
“It is obvious that the Israeli government is trying to assign blame to us, but on the other hand, they are closing all the doors to any progress,” Saeb Erekat, the top Palestinian negotiator, had said when he first heard of the time-out.
President Clinton said the United States would not abandon its efforts.
“They're both feeling the pressure of these hard issues and the press of time. I don't think it's more complicated than that,” Clinton said in Washington. “And as long as they get back to the work, you should feel positive about it. ... We've just got to keep working at it, and try to finish.”
Talks are hung up over who will be sovereign over a key Jerusalem shrine sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.
The Palestinians insist on full control of the shrine, home to two major mosques marking the spot where tradition says Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. They have said that at most they would allow symbolic Islamic sovereignty there.
Israel has suggested it is ready to consider less than full Israeli sovereignty, but has ruled out Palestinian or Islamic control over the area where the Jewish temple, the most sacred shrine of Judaism, stood in biblical times.
Israel and the Palestinians have made some progress on core issues, including the future borders of a Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees. Both sides have accused each other in recent days of rolling back on understandings reached at Camp David.
U.S. officials have not spoken publicly about compromise proposals. However, negotiators have said one idea is to transfer sovereignty over the key Jerusalem shrine to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
The Palestinians have rejected the proposal, but Israeli media reports have said Barak was willing to consider the idea.
(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
