Israel Delays Decision on Scope of Pullback

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet President Clinton in Washington on Tuesday without a government decision on how much of the occupied West Bank Israel would be willing to hand over to the Palestinians in another troop redeployment.

The Israeli Cabinet voted Sunday to postpone a decision on the scope of a pullback until Netanyahu’s return, hoping to give the prime minister maximum flexibility in his negotiations with Clinton.

“It is clear that if we had set a number, it would have elicited immediate public responses from the Palestinians and perhaps from the Americans. That would not have served my aims,” Netanyahu told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

“I prefer private consultations with President Clinton and to explain to him our limitations and our flexibility . . . and to try to work out with him the best way to move the [peace] process forward,” Netanyahu said.

The Clinton administration has been pushing for a significant pullback--at least 10% of the occupied lands--and originally it hoped to get specifics from Netanyahu on the second of three further redeployments that Israel agreed to carry out under Israeli-Palestinian peace accords.

Israeli media said that Netanyahu will offer either a double-digit pullback, in return for canceling the third redeployment and moving directly to final peace negotiations, or two, more limited pullbacks.

Government officials refused to confirm the specifics.

“The percentage is not something we are discussing at this point,” said Netanyahu spokesman David Bar-Illan. “But when we decide this is the further redeployment, that’s as much as we can give. If we have to give it in two stages, we’ll give it in two, but we’re not going to give more.”

The government did reiterate its decision last week to make a pullback conditional on the Palestinians’ compliance with their commitments under the peace accords. That resolution listed about 50 steps the Palestinians “must take” before Israel will withdraw further, including a thorough and consistent crackdown on Islamic extremists violently opposed to the peace process.

Also last week, the right-wing Cabinet voted to keep large swaths of the West Bank and strategic resources under Israeli control in any final agreement with the Palestinians. That would include so-called security zones on both sides of the West Bank, Jewish settlements, the area around Jerusalem, and water, electricity and transportation infrastructure.

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who will hold his own White House talks with Clinton on Thursday, rejected the Israeli declarations.

“Who can accept it?” Arafat asked reporters Saturday in the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials have said the government declarations prove that Israel does not intend to carry out further redeployments or to revive the moribund peace process. They have warned of a new outbreak of violence if the Washington talks fail to break the nearly yearlong deadlock in negotiations.

But when Netanyahu was asked by reporters Sunday about Palestinian accusations that he is stalling, he said: “What are we asking of them? We’re telling them, ‘Fulfill your obligations, for God’s sake.’ ”

Israeli officials said they were pleased with the signals they were receiving from Washington that no confrontation is expected between Clinton and Netanyahu over their differences.

But Israeli opposition leaders criticized the Cabinet for sending Netanyahu to Washington with what the Peace Now group called “empty and chained hands.”

Raanan Cohen, a Labor Party member of parliament, called the trip a waste of time and an unnecessary expense. “There is competition in the Cabinet over who is the most extreme minister in his opposition to the Oslo [peace] agreement. The result is paralysis,” he said.