Netanyahu Reportedly Eager to Resolve Hebron Dispute

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Palestinians that he wants to reach agreement quickly on an Israeli troop redeployment from the West Bank town of Hebron, diplomats and Israeli officials said Friday.

The message was conveyed to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat by U.S. mediators, who said the difficult negotiations were showing some signs of progress at the end of their first week.

“Netanyahu is serious about moving ahead, and neither side is trying to drag out negotiations,” said a U.S. official close to the talks.

But Palestinian negotiators dismissed the sunny reviews as Israeli jockeying and said there had been absolutely no advances.

The Israelis “say they are committed to a Hebron redeployment and then they use a ‘but’ and put [forth] their list of conditions,” said Saeb Erekat, head of the Palestinian negotiating team.

U.S. negotiators, he added, “would like things to progress. They know better. They know Israel is maneuvering.”

Israeli officials denied a report Friday in the daily newspaper Haaretz that Netanyahu was pushing to complete the Hebron negotiations before the U.S. presidential election Nov. 5.

Haaretz reported that a high-ranking military officer said the week for redeployment had already been determined.

“The prime minister has always said that he has no intention of dragging out the negotiations and strives to make progress as soon as possible, but still this is subject to the process, the circumstances,” said Shai Bazak, a spokesman for Netanyahu. “There is no destination date for redeployment in Hebron. This is not about elections or anything else.”

It is widely assumed on both sides that the Clinton administration is unlikely to lean on Israel for political concessions before the U.S. election to avoid alienating Jewish voters.

While denying any concern about the possibility of U.S. pressure after the election, Israeli officials say they fear prolonged negotiations have a tendency simply to break down.

Israeli security services have also warned the government about the potential for new terrorist attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, extremist Islamic groups opposed to the peace process.

A terrorist attack inside Israel would surely halt a Hebron redeployment, as did the Hamas suicide bombings that killed more than 60 people in February and March.

The redeployment from Hebron, the last West Bank city under Israeli occupation, was to have occurred in March under the Israeli-Palestinian interim peace agreement. But it was postponed by former Prime Minister Shimon Peres after the suicide bombings.

Since gun battles erupted last month between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian police, Israel has been demanding new security measures for the Jewish settlers in Hebron and for soldiers who will remain in the Jewish quarter there.

Israel is seeking the right to reenter Palestinian-controlled areas of Hebron when it deems it necessary to search for suspected terrorists; a ban on automatic weapons for Palestinian police; buffer zones around Israeli soldiers that would be off limits to armed Palestinian police; and control of high ground overlooking the Jewish quarter downtown.

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About 450 Jews live in the center of Hebron amid nearly 100,000 Palestinians. The interim accord allows for their neighborhood to remain under Israeli control, along with a path linking them to the holy Cave of the Patriarchs.

Israel also wants to keep some civilian authority in the city. Most important, the government wants to be able to veto construction of tall buildings near Jewish areas that could serve as Palestinian positions.

The Palestinians have rejected all of these demands as alterations of the detailed interim accord that allows, for example, for up to 400 Palestinian police armed with 200 pistols and 100 rifles to deploy in the areas of Hebron to be handed over to the Palestinians.

Still, the two sides’ security teams appeared to be moving ahead as if there might be common ground. Maj. Gen. Shaul Mufaz, head of Israel’s security committee, toured Palestinian and Jewish areas of Hebron on Friday with Palestinian security chiefs Col. Jibril Rajoub and Col. Mohammed Dahlan.

Dan Shomron, a retired general and head of the Israeli team, briefed Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordecai and Foreign Minister David Levy on Friday morning and, according to Israeli television, told them that there had been “advances in terms of security arrangements.”