Long, Hard Struggle for Middle East Peace : Nothing is ever easy, or quick, in the Middle East

Israeli troops had been scheduled to begin withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho next Monday, a date Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat had publicly described as “sacred.” Hallowed or not in Palestinian eyes, it’s clear now that the Dec. 13 goal, set three months ago when Israel and the PLO signed their historic declaration of principles, won’t be met.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who has been shuttling around the Middle East conferring with all of the key players in the drama, isn’t greatly worried by the slippage. Better, he correctly says, to get the movement toward Palestinian interim self-government started right than to have it start precisely on time. The main if not exclusive reason for the delay is that in their bold rush to achieve a breakthrough to an accord, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators left a lot of the detail work to be done later. They seem to be still arguing, for example, about just what the dimensions of Jericho are--that is, from how great an area Israeli troops will pull back--not an inconsequential issue given Israel’s concerns about security and the wish of the Palestinians to take over civil functions in as much territory as possible.

In Cairo on Sunday Arafat is scheduled to meet with Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in a top-level effort to resolve the impasse so that a partial troop withdrawal can begin in the next few days or weeks. The PLO tried to get Christopher to intervene directly to break the deadlock. Wisely, the secretary declined, recognizing that the two sides are best left to bridge their tactical differences alone. The time may come over the next three to five years when active U.S. mediation is needed to keep the process from collapsing. That isn’t the case right now.

At the same time a sense of urgency hovers over the continuing discussions. Opponents of the peace process among both Israelis and Palestinians are growing ever more ruthless. Delay in negotiations inevitably extends the opportunities for extremists to erode confidence in the accord through acts of terrorism. To that extent, time is a critical element in getting the self-goverment process launched.

Modest progress was achieved this week on another front, with the announcement that President Clinton will meet with Syria’s President Hafez Assad in Europe next month. Assad, who covets recognition as the key participant when it comes to achieving a settlement in the Middle East, dropped out of the peace process last September because he was hurt that the PLO had reached an accord with Israel behind his back.

Clinton’s agreement to meet with Assad is first and foremost an exercise in ego massaging. A well-covered meeting with an American President, in Assad’s eyes, affirms his status as a major regional leader. There are precedents: Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and George Bush all met briefly with the longtime Syrian dictator for just that reason. Assad has agreed to end his sulking and resume talking with Israel sometime after his meeting with Clinton. Another reminder that diplomacy is often a marketplace, where just about everything has a price.