Ready to Tackle the Tough Issues, Netanyahu Says

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday looked ahead, past the present, bitter dispute over when Israel will withdraw its troops from the West Bank city of Hebron, and said he is ready to tackle the toughest issues that have kept Israel and the Palestinians from peace.

But Netanyahu’s remarks to Israeli lawmakers--which came as the Palestinians and Israelis opened formal talks on Hebron--drew scathing criticism from former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and skepticism from Palestinian officials and analysts.

Peres, the Labor Party leader who helped hammer out the landmark interim agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, used unusually harsh language to accuse his successor of employing delaying tactics and of insincerity in his approach to the peace negotiations.

“Either there’s real peace, for which the price has to be paid, or there are empty declarations, the price of which is heavier and more horrible still,” said Peres, who was defeated by Netanyahu in Israel’s national elections in May.

Hanan Mikhail-Ashrawi, a member of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Cabinet, also expressed skepticism. “The important thing is not to talk about [peace] but to move forward with implementation” of key aspects of the signed agreements, including the Hebron redeployment, Ashrawi said.

Palestinian frustration over perceived Israeli foot-dragging on the peace process exploded in violence two weeks ago, leaving at least 75 people dead and more than 1,000 injured in clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But in a move apparently aimed at pushing the peace process forward, Israeli President Ezer Weizman announced that he will hold talks today with Arafat. The meeting will be at Weizman’s home. Arafat has paid at least one previous notable visit to Israel: a condolence call on Leah Rabin, widow of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, after her husband’s assassination in November.

Israel also acted to ease internal closures in the West Bank and Gaza on Monday, allowing about 2,000 Palestinian workers to return to their jobs in a north Gaza industrial area and announcing that it will lift a curfew on the West Bank city of Ramallah early today.

In the speech marking the opening of the Israeli parliament’s winter session, Netanyahu said the pullback of Israeli troops from Hebron, the only West Bank city still under occupation, was the top priority for the renewed peace negotiations taking place on the border between Israel and Gaza.

The two sides, which held their second day of discussions Monday, are trying to defuse the tensions that led to the recent rioting and prompted an emergency summit in Washington.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, ending a two-day visit to Israel and Gaza aimed at urging quick progress on the talks, said Monday that Israel had assured him it would not try to modify agreements already signed.

Israel has demanded tougher security arrangements in the wake of the clashes. Palestinian officials have said the existing agreements lay out the necessary security arrangements. But Christopher also told reporters that Israel and the Palestinians must decide together how to implement the redeployment in light of the recent bloodshed.

In his speech, Netanyahu did not give a date for Israel’s withdrawal of its troops from Hebron--an action already more than six months behind the schedule set out in the interim accords. But when the Hebron negotiations are complete, Netanyahu said, Israel will move on to what he called the “main task”: the final, most sensitive stage of peace talks aimed at reaching a permanent agreement with the Palestinians.

Although he did not provide specifics, it seemed clear that he referred to a possibly expanded form of Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza, not the independent state that has long been the focus of Palestinian aspirations. Netanyahu said a consensus already exists among Israelis on the form a final peace settlement should take.

“We will find that the agreement between the opponents of a Palestinian state and those who supposedly support it, but haven’t thought about the implications of its establishment, is broader than the disagreement,” said Netanyahu, who was heckled from the floor by Israeli Arab legislators.

He did not mention other complex issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the status of Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

Responding from the floor of the parliament, or Knesset, Peres castigated his rival for choosing to open discussions now on Jerusalem, one of the most sensitive issues between the two sides. Palestinians hope one day to make the eastern portion of the city the capital of an independent state. But Netanyahu has said Israel will never share power in Jerusalem.

“At this moment, you wish to start a debate over Jerusalem?” Peres asked, addressing Netanyahu directly. “At the peak of tension, at the peak of no confidence, of world suspicion? Is that what we need now?”

Peres’ Labor Party on Monday submitted a long-planned motion of no-confidence in Netanyahu’s government, which is expected to be voted on next week. Analysts said this action has little chance for success because Netanyahu’s coalition appears to be holding in the parliament; even if the government was to fall, Netanyahu would be unaffected because he was elected independently in Israel’s first popular vote for prime minister.

Despite Peres’ remarks Monday, some Labor leaders--includingseveral involved in the negotiations that led to the interim accords--have long sought to accelerate the peace process. They argue that subjects such as Jerusalem are so central to the debate that they should be dealt with sooner rather than later.

Yossi Beilin, a Knesset member and an architect of the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, said he welcomed Netanyahu’s proposal, under certain conditions. If the prime minister’s suggestion was not a substitute for implementing the current agreements, including the Hebron withdrawal, Beilin said, “then I think intensifying the discussion about the permanent solution is the right thing to do.”