Rabin, Arafat Discuss More Arab Self-Rule in W. Bank : Mideast: Gaza meeting is called pair’s friendliest. But they make no headway on scheduling Palestinian elections.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat on Sunday discussed extending Palestinian self-rule throughout the West Bank, but they set no date for Palestinian elections.

“We are for elections,” Rabin told reporters after two hours of talks with Arafat and other senior Palestinian officials. “But we have to know what will be elected, what will be the spheres of the elected body as well as the question of redeployment.”

The two leaders held what both sides described as their friendliest meeting just three hours after a knife-wielding Palestinian stabbed and seriously injured a 17-year-old Jewish settler at the entrance to Neve Dekalim, a Jewish settlement 20 miles south of Erez. The Erez checkpoint separates Gaza from pre-1967 Israel.

The settler, Yaacov Fisher, was reported in stable condition at a Beersheba hospital later in the day. He had moved to the settlement six weeks ago with his parents, who wanted to show solidarity with Jewish settlers in Gaza, Israel Radio reported.

The attacker, identified as Mustafa Mohammed Hila, 18, from Khan Yunis, a Palestinian village in Gaza, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers guarding the settlement. He reportedly had a leaflet of the Islamic movement Hamas in his pocket. Hamas later denied that it was involved in the attack.

“This is not only a challenge against us or against the Israeli side, this is a challenge against the peace process,” Arafat told reporters when asked about Palestinian attacks on Israelis. “These elements are trying to touch, or harm, the peace process. We are completely against it, and we have, we promised his excellency (Rabin), to do all our best to stop it.”

Rabin and Arafat agreed to start negotiating in Cairo next Monday the terms for West Bank and Gaza Strip elections. Arafat has publicly set Nov. 1 as the deadline for holding elections, but both Israeli and Palestinian officials say privately that it is unlikely elections will be held this year.

The two sides remain far apart on their concept of the powers a Palestinian body will have in the territories during the interim period of limited self-rule before Israel and the Palestinians negotiate the final status of territories Israel has occupied since the June, 1967, Arab-Israeli War.

The Palestinians want to elect a legislative body of more than 100 parliamentarians with broad responsibilities for making laws in what they hope will be the future Palestinian state. The Israelis favor a small executive council with limited lawmaking authority. The two sides also differ over how Palestinians living in East Jerusalem will participate in elections.

According to the Declaration of Principles signed by the two sides in Washington a year ago, Israel must redeploy its troops out of Palestinian population centers before elections are held. The question of redeployment is considered politically sensitive for Rabin, because he must be able to guarantee the security of more than 100,000 Jewish settlers, some of whom live inside the Palestinian town of Hebron in the West Bank.

Rabin is known to differ sharply with his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, over how quickly to move toward redeployment and elections. Peres favors speeding up negotiations with the Palestinians, while Rabin favors a more cautious approach, tied to Palestinian success in controlling attacks against Jews by Palestinians in Gaza and to the Palestinian Authority’s competence in running Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho, which Israel handed over to the PLO in May.

“We did not discuss dates,” Rabin said in response to reporters’ questions about when elections will be held. “The date will be decided by the results of the negotiations.”

Arafat said he still hopes to hold elections in November.

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin said Israel should begin preparing now to withdraw its troops from Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank.

The Palestinians have accused Rabin of deliberately dragging his feet on elections because he is reluctant to pull Israeli troops out of large parts of the West Bank. But although Israeli officials say it is unrealistic to hold elections in November, they insist that Israel is not interested in delays.

“We have no interest in putting off the elections,” said Environment Minister Yossi Sarid, who accompanied Rabin to Sunday’s meeting with Arafat. “On the contrary, we have an interest in having the elections take place as soon as possible.”

Sarid told Israel Radio that the meeting was the most successful meeting between Rabin and Arafat to date.

Arafat presented Rabin with an antique Torah scroll from Yemen, for which Rabin publicly thanked the former guerrilla leader. Rabin told reporters that the two agreed to meet again within a month to ensure that progress is being made toward elections.