Israel Asks U.S. to Intervene, Defuse Tension in Lebanon : Mideast: Rabin meets with American envoy as clashes escalate with Hezbollah militia.

With clashes escalating in southern Lebanon between Israel and the Hezbollah militia, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Monday asked the United States to intervene and defuse tensions.

Rabin made his request in a meeting with U.S. peace envoy Dennis Ross, who began a shuttle mission between Israel and Syria on Monday aimed at advancing their slow-moving peace negotiations.

Itamar Rabinovich, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, said Rabin would ask Ross to try to “clarify” with Syria an agreement the United States brokered between Israel and Hezbollah--which is based in Lebanon, where the Syrians exert extensive influence--in 1993.

The U.S.-brokered agreement was supposed to end attacks on civilians in Israel and Lebanon. “There are too many gray areas” in that agreement, Rabinovich said.

Ross arrived in Jerusalem as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were preparing to move their negotiations to Italy, where they hope to wrap up an accord extending Palestinian self-rule throughout the West Bank by a July 25 deadline. Large teams of negotiators for both sides are expected to start meeting, possibly outside Florence, by Thursday, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Facing pressure from political opponents, both the Israelis and Palestinians have opted to retreat to a “Camp David-like atmosphere” of seclusion, said spokesman Danny Shek. At the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, then-President Jimmy Carter helped Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin conclude their historic peace treaty in 1978.

With the clock ticking on their latest self-imposed deadline, Israel and the Palestinians find themselves far apart on key issues such as the extent of Israel’s initial redeployment out of Palestinian towns and villages and the size of the self-governing council Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will elect.

Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat is under fire from Islamic and other opponents to the peace talks who assert that he is about to sign a deal that will hand over only a tiny percentage of West Bank territory to Palestinian control.

Rabin is facing calls from influential rabbis for Israeli soldiers to disobey orders to withdraw from any territory in the West Bank. Former Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira and other rabbis have said that religious soldiers should follow their consciences and refuse orders to pull out of territory that many Israelis believe the Bible says should be in Jewish hands.

Senior army officers are concerned enough about the rabbis’ declarations that they have publicly warned that any soldier in the West Bank who disobeys orders to withdraw will be court-martialed.

Rabin held a rare meeting with Jewish settlers Monday, hearing a litany of concerns from them about the impending withdrawal of Israeli troops from portions of the West Bank. The meeting was “dramatically difficult and intense, harsh,” said Yehiel Leiter, a spokesman for the settlers. “Until now . . . at least there was an attempt on the part of the prime minister to mollify our concerns and assuage our fears.” Now, Leiter said, “there is not even a minimal attempt being made.”

Given the demands that southern Lebanon and the negotiations with the Palestinians are making on Rabin’s time, Ross may find it difficult to focus the hard-pressed prime minister’s attention on pushing forward the security talks with Syria.

Last month, the United States sponsored a meeting between the Israeli and Syrian chiefs of staff in Washington for talks on security arrangements on the Golan Heights. The two sides remain far apart on the topic, but Ross hopes to find enough common ground to hold another round of military talks in Washington before the end of the month.

Israeli newspapers reported Monday that the Syrians will accept no Israeli military presence in the Golan Heights but have agreed in principle to airborne early warning systems being operated by both sides.

Topping Rabin’s list of urgent concerns at the moment is the deteriorating security situation in southern Lebanon. On Saturday, Israeli forces killed two Lebanese sisters, ages 11 and 16, by lobbing a tank shell into the town of Nabatiyeh; four others were wounded.

Rabin subsequently labeled the shelling “superfluous” in a Cabinet discussion that was leaked to reporters. Lt. Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, army chief of staff, said the shell was fired by mistake and launched an internal investigation.

But Hezbollah termed the attack a massacre. It responded by firing 27 Katyusha rockets into northern Israel on Sunday night, setting cultivated fields ablaze and sending thousands of residents into bomb shelters for several hours.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher brokered an agreement between Israel and Hezbollah in 1993 in which the two sides agreed to refrain from attacking civilians. That agreement lately has been violated often by each side.

Some senior army officers have anonymously complained to reporters that Rabin’s reluctance to endanger negotiations with Syria by pursuing Hezbollah beyond the security zone in any systematic fashion has hampered the army’s ability to confront the militia. Syria, with 35,000 troops in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, is that nation’s chief powerbroker.

The Israelis insist that Syria encourages Hezbollah attacks on Israel’s self-proclaimed security zone in southern Lebanon to pressure Israel into compromising in its peace talks with Syria.