Visiting Albright Seeks ‘Mutual Responsibility’ From Israel, Palestinians

Brushing aside demands to focus exclusively on terrorism and Israel’s troubled security situation, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Israelis today that “real security is not separable from real peace.” Both Israelis and Palestinians must take responsibility for restarting the peace process, she said.

Albright delivered the brief speech after arriving in Israel early today, then joined Israeli President Ezer Weizman for breakfast at the presidential mansion.

Albright told reporters aboard her aircraft en route to Israel that the Jewish state and the Palestinians must keep the pledges they made in the 1993 peace accords negotiated in Oslo. Each side has accused the other of reneging on those agreements.

“Oslo has been--and is--a very important process,” Albright said. “I am going to be speaking about the importance of carrying out mutual responsibility in order to restore the trust that is necessary for the process to work.”

In the code words of Middle East diplomacy, that means Albright will call on Israel and the Palestinians to take steps they have been unwilling or unable to take.

She will demand that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat crack down on terrorist groups and cooperate more with Israeli security forces. But she also will call on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reverse his decision to freeze compliance with the peace pact until he is satisfied that the Palestinians are meeting their security obligations.

The agreement required Israel to turn additional West Bank land over to Palestinian control last Sunday, but Netanyahu refused to do so. After suicide bombers attacked a Jerusalem market July 30 and a popular pedestrian mall Thursday, killing 20 people besides the five bombers themselves, Netanyahu accused Arafat of a total breach of the accords, which call on the Palestinian Authority to make a maximum effort to stop terrorists from attacking Israelis.

Netanyahu has never been enthusiastic about the pact, which was negotiated by the previous Israeli government. But he has said he will live up to the commitments.

Albright has come under pressure from Capitol Hill to limit her agenda to laying down the law to Arafat on terrorism. Arafat’s attempt last month to reach an accommodation with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the groups responsible for most of the recent acts of terrorism, galvanized his opponents in Congress.

But Albright clearly has concluded that a one-sided, pro-Israeli policy won’t revive peace prospects.

In her remarks before a refueling stop in Shannon, Ireland, Albright conceded that the portents for her trip are far less favorable than she had hoped. Unlike her predecessor, Warren Christopher, who visited the region 27 times in less than four years, Albright had said she would go to the Middle East only when there was an opportunity to make progress. As a result, she delayed her first trip for eight months and then decided to go although progress seemed unlikely.

Albright also will meet Palestinian officials, tour an Arab and an Israeli school and visit victims of the latest Jerusalem bombing. She also plans stops in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan before returning to Washington on Monday.