Goodwill Wanes as Netanyahu Travels to U.S.

Almost a year after Benjamin Netanyahu narrowly won election by promising a new way to make peace, the Israeli prime minister is heading to the United States this weekend with his approach to the Palestinians nearing the put-up-or-shut-up stage.

President Clinton, who will confer with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, has been critical of Netanyahu’s confrontational methods, and polls show a growing number of Americans now believe that the Israeli leader is at least as much of an obstacle to Middle East peace as his Arab adversaries.

Netanyahu brings with him a proposal for a new negotiating plan, according to Israeli officials: a single marathon meeting with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat that would tackle the most difficult issues in the peace process all at once, abandoning the step-by-step approach that has faltered repeatedly in recent months, primarily because of a cycle of provocation and violence.

U.S. officials said there is merit to Netanyahu’s plan, and they have offered to host such a meeting, possibly at Camp David or some other secluded location.

But the Palestinians have been skeptical, arguing that the interim peace agreement they signed with the government of the late Yitzhak Rabin must be completed first.

For Netanyahu, the idea of leap-frogging the present process by about two years and launching the final round of negotiations is a chance to put his own stamp on the peace process and to demonstrate to the Israeli public and the international community that his approach is as effective as that advanced by Rabin and his successor as prime minister, Shimon Peres.

The “final status” talks are to include such thorny issues as borders, control over Jerusalem and sovereignty for the Palestinians.

For Clinton and his aides, the plan holds the promise of restoring momentum to the peace talks without requiring Washington to exert pressure on the Israelis, always a risky course in terms of domestic U.S. politics.

The Palestinians view the plan as an effort by the Israelis to avoid meeting their remaining obligations under the interim peace plan. But senior Palestinian officials have been careful not to rule out the proposal altogether, although they have suggested conditions that seem to negate Netanyahu’s plan.

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Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters Thursday that, if the remaining aspects of the existing agreements are resolved simultaneously, “we are not against” trying now to reach a permanent peace agreement.

Erekat said Arafat sent Clinton a letter this week stating that Israel must agree to refrain from taking unilateral steps that affect the negotiations and accept a freeze on settlements before peace negotiations, which were supposed to resume last month, can be restarted.

“Our main theme is settlements or peace,” Erekat said. “Israel cannot have both. To put the peace process back on track, Israel must freeze all settlements. Otherwise, there is nothing to talk about.”

Although Clinton has been critical of Israeli settlement activity, especially a disputed plan to build a new Jewish neighborhood in historically Arab East Jerusalem, administration officials hope to persuade Arafat to agree to negotiate without prerequisites. They said it is pointless for the Palestinian leader to try to dictate terms for the talks because his hand is too weak for that. These officials are telling Arafat that he has no real alternative to negotiations with the Israelis.

In two recent telephone conversations, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned Arafat that he stands to lose support from the administration and risks forfeiting U.S. and world public opinion if he does not curb Palestinian terrorism. She told Arafat that, despite provocation, suicide bombings and other forms of violence are unacceptable.

King Hussein of Jordan, who conferred with Clinton at the White House this week, is also urging Arafat to negotiate.

Netanyahu also faces increasing impediments to his ability to maneuver. For instance, there is growing evidence that the U.S. public--once overwhelmingly supportive of Israel in its disputes with the Arabs--is becoming critical of Netanyahu, especially for such seemingly provocative moves as opening a tourist tunnel under Temple Mount in Jerusalem, limiting a scheduled troop redeployment to a tiny percentage of the West Bank and starting construction of the East Jerusalem settlement called Har Homa.

A recent Harris Poll showed that Americans apportion blame for Middle East tensions about equally between Netanyahu and Arafat.

Asked who is more responsible for the cycle of violence, 28% blamed Israel and 31% blamed the Palestinians, with the rest either blaming both equally or saying that they had no opinion. It was a sharp change from years of polls that reflected far more criticism of the Arabs.

In a commentary on the survey, pollster Humphrey Taylor said: “Netanyahu may have done more to undermine American support for Israel than any Israeli leader since the birth of the country in 1948.”

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Speaking in Israel to a political forum sponsored by his Likud Party on Thursday, Netanyahu was defiant: “We will not surrender to terrorism, threats of terrorism or other dictates. We continue to build on Har Homa, in Jerusalem, in the settlements, and we shall continue.”

Despite Netanyahu’s uncompromising rhetoric, pressure is building on him to do something to rescue the beleaguered peace process.

“Netanyahu has to show Israelis and Americans that he is serious about ending the conflict,” said Jerome Segal, a research scholar at the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies. “He has got to come forward with a significant proposal that will convince people that he really has abandoned Likud ideology,” which rejects Palestinian sovereignty.

Segal is co-author of a recent public opinion survey in Israel that showed that 45% of Israeli Jews would be willing to consider giving the Palestinians control over some outlying Arab neighborhoods that recently have been annexed to Jerusalem--although not over any part of the historic core of the city.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Segal said the poll shows that Netanyahu has a very limited base of support for projects such as Har Homa.

Times staff writers Rebecca Trounson and Marjorie Miller in Jerusalem contributed to this report.