Christopher in Jericho, Says He’s Thrilled

Greeted by a sea of freshly sewn Palestinian flags and saluted by an honor guard of Palestine Liberation Organization soldiers, Secretary of State Warren Christopher visited the first West Bank town from which Israel has withdrawn on Tuesday and hailed its peaceful transfer of power as a model for the future.

“I am . . . thrilled to be here,” the usually taciturn Christopher said effusively as he met with Palestinian leaders at the police headquarters that Israel handed over to the PLO on Friday. “We have been talking about seeing things happen on the ground for such a long time, to see it translated into reality . . . is a tremendous thrill.

“A great deal rides on how this is worked out,” he said, sitting beneath a newly installed oil portrait of a beaming Yasser Arafat, the PLO chairman. “I am very impressed to see the degree to which this has been managed with skill and efficiency.”

Faisal Husseini, the most prominent leader among the Palestinians of Jerusalem and the West Bank, lost no time in asserting that Christopher’s visit was a boost for PLO hopes of establishing an independent state. “I would like to welcome the secretary of state to Jericho--the first step in building our state of the future,” he said as Christopher listened impassively.

Husseini said the Palestinians were determined to “implement a real peace . . . where all the people of the area can live together in peace and dignity.”

Outside the conference room where they met, the new Palestinian state-in-testing was already visible. American security agents mingled with grizzled PLO soldiers just arrived from Iraq, Russian-made AK-47 rifles at their sides. A troop of Palestinian boy scouts in khaki uniforms and red kerchiefs paraded to a ragged beat of drums.

“I couldn’t help but think what they could have been doing under other circumstances,” Christopher said later, referring to the rock-throwing youths of the intifada , the Palestinian uprising of the late 1980s.

“This visit is an important political signal to the world,” said Capt. Anwar Tanireh, 35, a physician in the PLO medical corps, who arrived from Baghdad on Friday as part of the new security force. “This helps put the Palestinian governing authority solidly in place.”

On his left shoulder were new insignia: a black patch reading “National Security Force” over a bright enameled coat of arms proclaiming simply: “Palestine.”

The roughly 500 soldiers came to Jericho under the Israeli-Palestinian pact signed May 4, under which Israel agreed to give the Gaza Strip and 24 square miles around Jericho to a Palestinian Authority, as an experiment before handing over more of the occupied West Bank.

The result, one senior U.S. official said, was “the first time in their entire history that Palestinians have governed themselves.”

A few blocks from Christopher’s meeting, Palestinians from all over the West Bank flooded through the ancient oasis town--the world’s oldest continuously inhabited human settlement--to take a look at what may be the government of their future.

They bought PLO flags hawked by street vendors, gawked at two huge portraits of Arafat spray-painted on the front of the City Hall and photographed each other in front of a freshly painted mural that shows Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein looking heroic between a pair of Scud missiles. “Everybody here loves Saddam Hussein,” a taxi driver explained. “He shot missiles at Tel Aviv.”

But inside the town hall, Mayor Jameel Khalaf had more immediate concerns: His city is running out of money, and he doesn’t know who in the new Palestinian Authority to turn to. “We are all chiefs and no Indians,” he complained.

The question of who is in charge was also a major reason for Christopher’s visit, the first by any high-ranking foreign official to the self-ruled Palestinian area.

The Clinton Administration wants to strengthen the authority of Palestinian moderates such as Husseini--and weaken the allure of Hamas, the radical Islamic group that claimed responsibility Tuesday for the slaying of two Jewish settlers in Hebron, only 30 miles from Jericho.

The Administration wants to help Husseini and his colleagues deliver basic services and begin rebuilding a ravaged local economy for the 20,000 residents of Jericho, and has promised $500 million in aid over five years.

“We are working to rehabilitate schools, clinics, we are helping to set up the Palestinian Authority, we are helping to equip the police,” Christopher said. “One of the reasons I came today is to make clear to our Palestinian friends . . . that they are not alone in this new endeavor.”

But that was not enough for the Palestinians. “It is time for donor countries to deliver,” said Saeb Erekat, one of the leaders who met with Christopher. “Any delay will cost us dearly.”

Still, even Erekat’s demands gave the Americans some hope. One senior official noted that Erekat, once known for fiery denunciations of Israel and the United States, spent part of the closed meeting discussing the need for improved water pipes in the area, to reduce the loss of precious irrigation water.

The Palestinians have realized, the official said, that “it is essential that they be seen as being up to the task of self-government.”