Palestinians, Israelis Begin Direct Talks

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators opened substantive talks about the future of the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Monday after finally papering over a procedural squabble that had stalled the Middle East peace process for more than a month.

Although participants on both sides admitted that bargaining will be tough and success is by no means assured, the meeting at the State Department marked the first time that Israelis and Palestinians have engaged in face-to-face negotiations over the territories that both groups claim as part of their national homeland.

The Israeli-Palestinian talks opened late in the afternoon after agreement among the heads of the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian delegations to settle a procedural dispute that had become so arcane that Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said it was “incomprehensible” to participants and observers alike.

Meanwhile, Israel met separately with Syria. Participants said the two governments continued to describe their stands regarding the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and ways to end a technical state of war that has existed between Damascus and Jerusalem for more than four decades. So far, however, neither party has compromised.

A scheduled Israel-Lebanon meeting was postponed because the chief of the Lebanese delegation said he was ill with the flu.

The Israel-Syria and Israel-Lebanon negotiators began to tackle substantive issues last month. But the Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian conference bogged down on the demand by the Jordanians and Palestinians to be treated as separate delegations to demonstrate that they are separate people. For its part, Israel insisted that the Jordanians and Palestinians act as part of a joint delegation to underline Israel’s refusal to recognize the Palestinians as a distinct political entity.

At the height of the dispute last month, the Arabs insisted on breaking into separate working groups--a predominantly Palestinian group with a single token Jordanian member and a predominantly Jordanian group with a single Palestinian--which would meet in separate rooms at the same time. The Israelis agreed to establish subcommittees but said that all meetings must be in a single room.

Two token Jordanians were put on the predominantly Palestinian group and two Palestinians on the Jordanian group. Both sides said they were satisfied with the outcome.

But as the substantive talks began, Ashrawi, the Palestinian spokeswoman, said that the first order of business would be an Arab demand for an end to the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East War.

Elyakim Rubinstein, the chief Israeli delegate, said his country is prepared to talk about limited Palestinian self-rule but would not negotiate on settlements.

“We’re going to discuss with the Palestinians . . . interim self-government arrangements,” Rubinstein said. “If I had to advise my counterparts, I would advise them to focus on that, and then results may, God willing, be achieved. If the negotiations become distracted to this or that point, which is beyond the interim self-government arrangements, it’s a pity, because time would be wasted.”

Looming over the peace process is the question of Israel’s request for $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to house Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Washington wants Israel to agree to curb West Bank and Gaza settlement activity in return for the loan guarantees; Israel rejects any interference with its settlements. President Bush is expected to decide soon if he will support the guarantees, and, if so, under what conditions.

Ashrawi said that if Washington approves the guarantees, “we will view that as a direct affront to the peace process” because Palestinians are convinced that the money will permit Israel to increase settlement in the occupied territories.

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Zalman Shoval, said that the loan guarantees are a matter to be decided between the Israeli and U.S. governments.

He accused Ashrawi of “chutzpah” for injecting herself into the dispute.

“It is very clear that what the Arabs--especially the Palestinians--want to achieve by this is to put pressure on the United States on a matter which is primarily a humanitarian matter which has nothing to do with the peace process,” Shoval said.