The United States put the heat on the Palestinians to end four weeks of clashes with Israeli forces as efforts to bring peace to the region continued to stumble Thursday.
Meanwhile the violence took a new turn with a reported suicide attack by a cyclist on an Israeli position in the Gaza Strip, killing the bomber and wounding a soldier.
Israeli General Yom Tov Samia blamed the attack on the radical Islamic Jihad, which is strongly opposed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
The US House of Representatives came down firmly on Israel's side Wednesday, passing by 365 votes to 30 Wednesday a resolution condemning the Palestinian leadership and accusing it of promoting the current violence.
By a 365-30 vote the house expressed "its solidarity with the state and people of Israel," and condemned the Palestinian leadership for "encouraging the violence and doing so little for so long to stop it, resulting in the senseless loss of life."
The resolution, which now goes to the Senate, called on the Palestinian leadership "to refrain from any exhortations to public incitement ... (and) to vigorously use its security forces to act immediately to stop all violence ... and to settle all grievances through negotiations."
The resolution was sponsored by New York Republican representative Benjamin Gilman, who said in a statement to the press that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat "is attempting to dictate Israeli concessions at the negotiating table through the unbridled use of violence.
"Today Congress, together with our friends in Israel and elsewhere, says no to that sort of violence."
The resolution also urges the administration of US President Bill Clinton to "use its veto power ... to ensure that the (UN) Security Council does not again adopt unbalanced resolutions addressing the uncontrolled violence in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority."
Gilman welcomed Washington's abstention October 7 in a UN Security Council vote on a resolution condemning Israel, and criticized "countries whose leaders should have known better, such as France and Spain ... (who) ganged up against Israel in endorsing an awful, one-sided UN resolution."
Earlier Clinton said Arafat was in a position to bring about a reduction in the violence which has killed some 140 people, most of them Palestinians.
"I think the violence can be dramatically reduced," Clinton said.
"I think that, you know, there are probably some people within the Palestinian territories, and probably some people within Israel, that are not within total control of Chairman Arafat or even the Israeli government," he added.
"But I do think Chairman Arafat can dramatically reduce the level of violence."
On Tuesday the White House said Clinton had proposed that Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak come to Washington to meet separately with him.
A Palestinian official in Gaza told AFP earlier Wednesday that Arafat is likely to visit Washington in early November.
At the Clinton-hosted summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on October 17, Arafat and Barak agreed to take steps to halt the unrest, but clashes have continued daily since then, though the level of violence has subsided in recent days.
Clinton also paid tribute to Barak, whose troubled government is under increasing domestic pressure and who declared an indefinite "time out" in the seven-year peace process on Sunday.
Barak, made some "very courageous decisions" in peace talks with the Palestinians, Clinton said, "and he's in a difficult position now because he's getting the worst of both worlds."
Meanwhile the United States expressed alarm at reported alliances between Arafat's Palestinian Authority and militant groups opposed to the Middle East peace process, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
"It's an issue of serious concern, and we will continue to monitor it through our embassy and our consulate there," said State Department spokesman Philip Reeker, responding to reports in the Washington Post Wednesday.
"The Palestinian Authority has obligations to carry out its commitments, particularly the fight against terrorism, and to apprehend, to prosecute and to bring to justice those involved in terrorist acts," he added.
"There can be no excuse or justification for any other course of action other than carrying out those commitments ... There's a need to see that the people interested in violence are off the streets."
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Arafat had formed "a working alliance" with Palestinian radicals he had previously put in jail.
Dozens of members of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad have been freed in the last three weeks to help coordinate the Palestinian violence, or resistance to the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Post reported.
Security talks between the two sides resumed Wednesday but ended without any progress being reported -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
