U.S. Pledges to Press Israel on W. Bank Land Issue

President Clinton, trying to break the deadlock in the Mideast peace process, assured Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat on Thursday that the United States will keep pressing Israel to relinquish a “sizable and credible” tract of West Bank land but said the Palestinians must do more to combat terrorism.

Clinton’s talks with Arafat closely paralleled the president’s meetings Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, almost down to the length of the sessions. Both Mideast leaders started with 90-minute morning meetings in the Oval Office, then returned for more talks after dark.

In between meetings with Clinton, both Arafat and Netanyahu talked for more than two hours with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Although no agreements were reached in the back-to-back Washington meetings, Albright said there was enough progress to raise the prospect of a Netanyahu-Arafat session with Albright as mediator, probably somewhere in Europe.

She said she would probably have to meet again separately with each leader to complete plans for three-way talks, which she said she hoped could be held “soon.” Albright said the meetings were needed to “overcome the differences between the two sides and rebuild trust.”

Arafat and Netanyahu, in public statements in Washington, each blamed the other for the impasse and for failing to keep commitments first outlined in the 1993 peace accord negotiated in Oslo and signed on the White House lawn. U.S. officials said neither party has lived up to its obligations. Israel has failed to turn over to the Palestinians more West Bank land, and the Palestinians have not given a “100% effort” to combat terrorist attacks against Israelis.

To try to overcome the mutual distrust and hostility, Clinton urged the Israelis and the Palestinians to work out a process of “parallel implementation.” Under that proposal, Israel would turn over to the Palestinians specific tracts of West Bank land in exchange for specific Palestinian acts of security cooperation. Officials said the plan would let each side move carefully while eventually rebuilding trust.

But officials said neither Netanyahu nor Arafat agreed to that approach.

Under the Oslo pact, Israel is the sole judge of the amount of territory that it will relinquish. But Clinton called for a “sizable and credible” Israeli withdrawal. Palestinian officials said the president indicated that he will push for at least 10% of the territory, but Albright said Clinton did not specify a figure.

As a result of the Washington meetings, however, Albright said, “I do sense there is some understanding of the other guy’s problems.

“It is very clear to all of us that we are down to a situation where the decisions are very hard,” she added. “They both believe that they are down to the very tough issues. These are not peripheral issues. These are the gut issues of the process.”

On one item of towering symbolic importance, Arafat sought to reassure the Israelis. He handed Clinton a letter declaring that all articles of the Palestine National Charter that could be interpreted as calling for the destruction of Israel are “null and void.” The Palestine Liberation Organization’s policymaking council voted in 1996 to repeal those articles but has not reconvened to complete the paperwork.

Netanyahu said Israel will not proceed with more West Bank withdrawals until the PLO holds a formal meeting to “tear up that charter.” It is unlikely that Arafat’s declaration will satisfy Netanyahu, but Albright said it appears to “address the ambiguities about the revision” of the charter.

Albright and U.S. Mideast peace envoy Dennis B. Ross have been pressing a four-part agenda calling for more Israeli withdrawals, a freeze on construction of Jewish settlements in disputed territory, increased Palestinian effort against terrorism and an early start to negotiations over the final status of the occupied territories. But this week was the first time that Clinton weighed in personally to push the U.S. proposals.

“We don’t want to just keep dragging this out,” Clinton said at the start of the morning meeting. “I think we have a sense of urgency here.”

For Clinton, the meetings were a welcome respite from the sex scandal swirling around him. Asked if the president was being distracted by the controversy, Albright said: “Absolutely not. He is very focused on this. He has made it very clear that this is a high-priority issue.”