CIA chief George Tenet met separately with Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs Sunday, postponing the three-way meeting during which both sides were expected to reply his ceasefire plan, as the Palestinians buried three women killed overnight.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) expressed reservations in its written answer to the US document aimed at bolstering the fragile Mideast truce, said Haaretz newspaper.
The Palestinians are adamantly opposed to the demand that they arrest Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, a Palestinian official was quoted by the paper as saying.
They also want to shorten the cooling-off period before diplomatic negotiations resume, and they want definite dates for Israeli obligations under the plan, he added.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat insisted Sunday that the PA remained committed to the Mitchell report, on which Tenet's plan is based. Asked how this fit with the PA's objection to arresting members of the Islamic groups - one of the key elements of the report - he responded: "If you find the words Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Mitchell report, let me know."
For their part, the Israelis decided to accept the Tenet plan on one condition: that the PA completely stop the “violence, including stone-throwing,” which the PA has said in the past is not covered by the ceasefire - and fully implement all other elements of the plan, Haaretz said.
“Only once this has occurred is Israel willing to fulfill its obligations under the plan, such as ending the closure, withdrawing its forces to the positions they occupied before the Intifada began and freezing settlement construction,” an official told the paper.
According to Israeli media, Tenet's plan includes a halt to Israeli attacks against autonomous Palestinian sectors, the withdrawal of Israeli forces to positions before the Intifada broke out, a lifting of the blockade on the West Bank and Gaza Strip and action to stop Jewish settlers from attacking Palestinians.
The Mitchell report had called for an immediate ceasefire, an Israeli freeze on Jewish settlement building and full Palestinian efforts to prevent "terrorism" in order to move back to the negotiating table.
"Mr. Tenet suggested the best thing, if not the most perfect, to both sides in order to enter into an actual ceasefire," Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told reporters.
Israel's television channel said the US officials, who had arrived in Ramallah for the meeting, had returned to Jerusalem as they were not pleased with the Palestinians' responses to their proposals.
The postponed meeting comes as a setback to peace efforts. Meanwhile, the European Union also stepped up efforts to end the crisis.
During talks with EU officials, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told reporters he remained committed to the truce.
Peres said the ceasefire had been "quite a success."
"I think if all of us will coordinate in a responsible, positive manner we may bring the Middle East again to the port of negotiations in order to attain a real and durable peace in this region," Peres said after meeting Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Persson called for the creation of an international coalition to bolster the truce between Israel and the Palestinians, according to AFP.
At his talks with the EU officials, Arafat insisted that the Palestinians were holding to the ceasefire he declared eight days ago following a suicide bomb blast in Tel Aviv, amid persistent Israel complaints that he was not doing enough.
"We are holding to the ceasefire and we are working towards bringing the situation to how it was before September 28 (when the uprising erupted)," Arafat said.
The Palestinians charge that Israel has not eased the tougher closure it imposed after the Tel Aviv bombing, saying crossing points in Gaza remained closed and fuel supplies were still blocked.
In a new attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon likened Arafat to Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, Israeli media reported.
"You won't negotiate with a Bin Laden, and for us Arafat is a Bin Laden," Sharon was quoted as telling US special envoy William Burns Saturday.
The peace efforts, meanwhile, were clouded by the killing of three Palestinian women in an Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip overnight, which Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo branded a "shameful act" and a "clear Israeli violation" of the ceasefire, said AFP.
A Palestinian source said Israeli soldiers and armed Palestinians also exchanged fire near Ramallah. None of the incidents resulted in any injuries.
But a Palestinian who was hit by an Israeli bullet in the Gaza Strip last week died of his injuries Sunday in an Israeli hospital, according to the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, Reuters reports that Palestinians have killed approximately 88 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. The latest suicide bombing raises that toll by at least 20. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to CNN, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 450 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s. The most recent Israeli tank attack raises that death toll to 453.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children.
In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
