Netanyahu’s W. Bank Pullback Plan Draws Fire

Under American pressure to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday tried to rally support from government ministers for a further pullback from the West Bank and a timeout on settlement construction.

But Netanyahu’s proposal to withdraw from an additional 6% to 8% of the West Bank was rejected out of hand by the Palestinians and lambasted by the prime minister’s own right wing, which threatened to bring down his government.

Netanyahu is suggesting the pullback by Israel--which now controls about 70% of West Bank land--in exchange for a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism and accelerated negotiations for a permanent peace agreement.

President Clinton, who insisted he could not find time to meet with Netanyahu during the Israeli leader’s trip to the United States this month, has been pressing the premier to come up with a “credible” redeployment proposal to get the moribund peace process back on track.

In a meeting in London earlier this month, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also pressed Netanyahu to come up with a West Bank troop plan and for a timeout on construction of Jewish settlements there.

Clinton did meet last week at the White House with former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, a member of the opposition Labor Party and an architect of the peace process, and, according to the Israeli press, expressed his frustration at Netanyahu’s foot-dragging.

In a U.S.-brokered agreement to turn over the West Bank city of Hebron last January, Israel committed to three further troop redeployments beginning in March. The Cabinet approved a withdrawal from about 2% of the land under Israeli control in the first phase but the Palestinians called the unilateral step ridiculously small and the hand-over never took place.

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Under the plan Netanyahu is presenting to his Cabinet members now, Israel would pull back from an additional 6% to 8% of the territory by April 1 if the Palestinians have launched a serious counter-terrorism campaign as they are bound to do by the Hebron accord, a senior Israeli official said.

Further, Israel would agree to a timeout in West Bank settlement construction, as demanded by the U.S., and the Palestinians would forgo a third redeployment until a final peace agreement is reached.

“The redeployment has to be credible with the Americans,” said the Israeli official who asked not to be identified. “We are talking about 6% and the Americans want 15%, so it will probably be about 10%.”

The bottom line, the official said, is that the Palestinians would control between 35% and 39% of the West Bank going into final negotiations; Israel would still control more than 60%.

The Palestinians want 90% of the West Bank territory in their hands before tackling final negotiations on the toughest issues, such as the future of Jewish settlements, control over East Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees and Palestinian statehood. The Israeli government says that is out of the question.

U.S. officials say they have not given Netanyahu a number or a deadline for further redeployment. But they have said he must come up with something “reasonable and acceptable” to the Palestinians.

Israel Radio reported today that the Palestinians were briefed overnight on Netanyahu’s proposal, which already had been published in the media. “This is not a proposal worth discussing,” said Nabil Amro, an advisor to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

“We feel it is an attempt by Netanyahu to contain the pressure by the United States and Europe to implement Israel’s commitments.”

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Israelis were “negotiating with themselves.”

But that appeared to be as difficult as negotiating with the Palestinians. Netanyahu’s right flank in the coalition--17 members of parliament who call themselves the Eretz Israel, or Greater Israel front--met Monday and said they had decided to bring down the government if the prime minister attempted another redeployment.

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“We cannot back a government that is about to expand the withdrawal . . . from Judea and Samaria,” Moshe Peled, deputy education minister and a member of the front, said, using the biblical terms preferred by hard-liners when referring to the West Bank.

As Netanyahu was trying to rally support from Cabinet members, Avigdor Lieberman, his former chief of staff, lashed out at many of them for disloyalty and dividing the Likud Party. Lieberman resigned Sunday in what seemed to be a bid to quell a Likud uprising over scrapping primary elections. Netanyahu’s rivals in the party had been furious at Lieberman’s efforts to tighten the prime minister’s control over the party during a convention last week.

The resignation leaves Netanyahu without his closest ally and right-hand man in the government. The two worked together to take over Likud in 1992, and it is largely through the Moldovan immigrant’s workmanship that Netanyahu won the party leadership post.

On Monday, Lieberman accused Likud opponents of “conspiracy to bring down the government and the prime minister” and said he had quit his civil service post so he could work more freely to bolster Netanyahu within the party.

But Israeli television reported Monday night that police have recommended indicting Lieberman on charges of theft and fraud. The case stems from a loan of about $40,000 that Lieberman received from a nonprofit agency in 1993.