Palestinians Go on Offensive Before Talks

Palestinian leaders accused Israel on Thursday of “looking for excuses” to wriggle out of its commitment to withdraw from occupied lands in the West Bank and of trying to sabotage peace talks with President Clinton in Washington next week.

At news conferences in Hebron, Jericho and Jerusalem, Palestinian officials tried to take the offensive against Israeli Cabinet decisions this week hardening Israel’s position in peace negotiations.

“They are putting [up] all the obstacles before going to Washington, while we are looking to achieve something concrete from these meetings in Washington,” Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat told reporters in Hebron.

Clinton is to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with Arafat in a bid to salvage the peace negotiations that have been deadlocked for nearly a year. Arafat called the talks “a turning point, not only for the Palestinians and Israelis, but for the whole region as well.”

Arafat’s visit to Hebron coincided with the anniversary of the completion of the Hebron accord, the only agreement the Palestinians have reached with Israel since Netanyahu took office 19 months ago promising “peace with security.”

In that deal, Israel withdrew its troops from most of Hebron and agreed to three subsequent redeployments before starting final peace negotiations, while the Palestinians promised to cooperate in fighting terrorism against Israel, to limit the size of their police force and to round up illegal weapons. Both sides accuse the other of failing to keep its pledge.

On Tuesday, the Israeli Cabinet passed a resolution making any further pullbacks conditional on Palestinian fulfillment of the Hebron agreement. The government drew up a list of 50 measures it said the Palestinian Authority “must take to comply with its obligations.”

Then on Wednesday, the Cabinet voted to keep large swaths of the West Bank and strategic resources in any final agreement, effectively rendering much of the land occupied in the 1967 Mideast War nonnegotiable.

Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath, meeting with reporters in Jerusalem, said that Netanyahu is catering to irreconcilable forces in his fractious coalition government, preparing a troop pullback proposal to appease moderates who want to move forward with the peace process, then setting impossible conditions for the redeployment so that he can tell opponents of the peace process that he will never carry it out.

“Why should we fall for this exercise?” Shaath said. “We know that Mr. Netanyahu is doing his best to make the Washington talks fail, but we are not going to accept that.”

Shaath insisted that the Palestinians were cooperating with Israel on security issues and would continue to do so. He called on Clinton to persuade Israel to carry out the redeployments. “We would like to see a little more open pressure, to get the peace process on track,” Shaath said.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat delivered a similar message in Jericho.

Arafat reportedly asked European Union envoy Miguel Moratinos and British Deputy Foreign Minister Derek Fatchett to get more involved in the peace process and urged Clinton to press Israel.

The Palestinian leaders said they feared a new outbreak of violence if the peace process does not move forward soon.

Israeli officials charge that the Palestinians use the threat of violence as a club over Israel’s head--and this violates the essence of a peace process.

Shaath insisted that they were “not threatening anything” but were warning that Palestinians were angry and frustrated.

“This [violence] is not our option. Our option is to make the peace process succeed,” he said.

The daily newspaper Maariv reported Thursday that Israeli security forces believe that the Palestinians have stockpiled weapons and conducted assault training exercises to prepare for a possible violent conflict with Israel. Shaath denied this.

The Israeli army has carried out its own exercises simulating an armed confrontation with the Palestinians.