U.S. Envoy Ends Mideast Mission

U.S. peace envoy Dennis B. Ross was due to leave the Middle East for Washington early today after a mission that apparently failed to break the deadlock in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The veteran mediator, sent to the region to prepare for meetings President Clinton is to hold with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in two weeks, could claim a modest success, however. Israeli officials said Ross achieved a “slight” improvement in security cooperation when the two sides agreed to establish a hotline, though details were murky.

Overall, the mood was relatively grim, however, despite Ross’ efforts during four days of shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

On Friday, he held another round of meetings with Arafat in Ramallah and with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, and he also met with Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon, a former general who has emerged as a key player in crafting the government’s negotiating position with the Palestinians.

Comments by both sides Friday reflected the difficulty Ross and others face in trying to bridge the growing gulf.

“Dennis [Ross] is exerting every possible effort, and Netanyahu is exerting every possible defiance of that effort,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. “The gaps are still there.”

A Netanyahu aide said the Ross visit had achieved little.

“I would say there is still a long way to go,” Cabinet Secretary Danny Naveh told Israel Radio. “For progress to be made, the other side has to carry out its commitments.”

Israel has said it will demand from the Palestinians strict adherence to commitments made in previous peace agreements before it carries out a promised troop withdrawal from the West Bank. The Cabinet last month agreed to the withdrawal but has yet to determine its scope or timing.

In an interview published Friday, Netanyahu also reiterated that Israel will carry out just one more West Bank pullback, not the three it committed to in the U.S.-sponsored Hebron agreement a year ago, before trying to persuade the Palestinians to enter talks on a final peace settlement.

“You can’t ask us to fulfill all our commitments concerning the pullbacks when [the Palestinians] haven’t fulfilled a single one of their commitments,” Netanyahu was quoted in the newspaper Maariv.

Israel has accused the Palestinians of failing to mount a serious crackdown against Islamic extremist groups that oppose the peace process and have killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings.

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Netanyahu is widely considered to have less maneuvering room for concessions to the Palestinians after this week’s resignation of Foreign Minister David Levy and the government’s subsequent rightward shift. Levy’s departure, along with four other members of his Gesher Party, has left Netanyahu with a bare 61-59 majority in parliament and increased the influence of right-wing and religious parties within his ruling coalition.

Netanyahu has insisted that the government will survive and pass a decision on the troop withdrawal before he meets Clinton in Washington on Jan. 20. Arafat is due to meet the U.S. leader two days later.

Still, Israelis are asking what decision can be reached that will keep Netanyahu’s increasingly shaky coalition intact and satisfy the Palestinians.

Israeli officials say a pullback from 6% to 10% of the West Bank is being considered, while Arafat said this week that he expects to get 40% of the land in the next withdrawal. U.S. officials, in turn, have said they expect Israel to make a “significant and credible” withdrawal of at least 10%. The Palestinians now have full or partial control over 27% of the territory.

The Israeli Cabinet is to meet Sunday to renew its discussions on conditions for the pullback.

Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, reacted angrily to reports that the Netanyahu government has drawn up plans to build 30,000 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over two decades.

Housing Ministry officials on Friday confirmed a report in the liberal Haaretz newspaper that a recent government survey examined the possibility of building the homes in settlements and in cities and towns throughout Israel. A spokesman said, however, that approval for the plan has not been granted and insisted that its purpose is not political.

Asked about Israel’s policy of allowing expansion of existing settlements, Ross reiterated the U.S. position that new construction is “not helpful” to the peace process.