Israel Says Dispute Over Peace Pact Is Resolved

After two days of Israeli-Palestinian wrangling and intensive U.S. mediation, Israel announced early today that a dispute over a key security demand in the new peace agreement was resolved, allowing the Cabinet to meet and discuss ratification.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had refused to convene his Cabinet to vote on the land-for-security accord until he received U.S. assurances that the Palestinians would act on his nation’s demand to arrest 30 fugitives suspected of violence against Israelis.

Once the dispute was settled in a lengthy meeting between U.S. and Israeli officials that ended well past midnight, the Cabinet meeting was quickly scheduled for 10 a.m. today, said David Bar-Illan, a senior Netanyahu aide. “We’re glad it’s been resolved,” he said.

But the latest tussle between the two sides, which came less than two weeks after the accord was signed at the White House, has underscored both the fragility of the agreement and the critical, near-constant role the Americans must play to try to ensure its progress.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Wednesday consulted with Netanyahu by telephone for a fourth straight day. U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis B. Ross spoke with top Palestinian officials. At the same time, American diplomats in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv searched for compromise language to resolve the disagreement over one element of a Palestinian program to combat violent Islamic militants.

Even after the dispute was settled, it remained unclear whether implementation of the agreement could proceed on schedule. The pact’s 12-week timetable links Palestinian security obligations with phased Israeli withdrawal from an additional 13% of the West Bank.

At the center of the latest problem was an Israeli demand that the Palestinians provide U.S. mediators with a timetable for the arrest of 30 Palestinian fugitives suspected of attacking Israelis. Israel says the documents were required under terms of the agreement reached Oct. 23 at Wye Plantation in Maryland.

The new Palestinian commitment calls for the arrest of 10 fugitives in each of three stages during the three-month implementation process.

On Wednesday, for the second time in two days, Netanyahu postponed a meeting of his Cabinet at which he was to present the accord for approval, saying he had not received sufficient information on the fugitives. These announcements followed other delays, the first Oct. 27, when Netanyahu said he could not convene the Cabinet until he read the security plan.

As the delays dragged into midweek, Palestinians accused Netanyahu of deliberate stalling to slow implementation of an agreement he no longer wants, or using pretexts to gain time as he tries to persuade right-wing Cabinet ministers to back the accord.

“It’s shameless at this point,” said Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians’ chief negotiator. “He’s playing a big game because he just doesn’t want to implement the agreement and at the same time he’s trying to humiliate us with building more [Jewish] settlements.”

U.S. officials said they believed that the issue of the fugitives was a key one for Netanyahu’s right-wing constituency and a particularly high priority for Ariel Sharon, the former general and new foreign minister. Netanyahu needs Sharon’s support to win Cabinet approval for the accord, but Sharon has carefully refrained from saying whether he will vote for it in the Cabinet or in next week’s scheduled parliament session.

A U.S. official here said Netanyahu was seen by right-wingers to be caving in at the summit on the question of extraditing the fugitives to Israel. “There’s no question that the Israelis won’t move forward with implementation until this gets resolved,” the official said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin indicated that the issue is separate from the Wye agreement itself, despite Israel’s insistence to the contrary.

“Clarifications can be sought, and may or may not be achieved,” Rubin said. “And that doesn’t change the fact that in general, [the Palestinians] have met the requirements of the agreement.”

On Wednesday, Israel published the names of the 30 fugitives and said they were responsible for the deaths of more than 100 Israelis. Israel says 12 of those on the list serve in Palestinian security forces.

In Madrid, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said 12 people on the Israelis’ list already had been arrested. “We will continue to pursue the others,” he said.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that, if that was true, the Israeli prime minister welcomed the arrests. “This is exactly what we are demanding--strict fulfillment of every clause in the agreement by both sides, Palestinian and Israeli as well,” the statement quoted the prime minister as saying.