Mideast Leaders Remain Firm on Demands

Warning that neither side can hope to get everything it wants, President Clinton on Thursday welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to summit talks intended to break a stubborn stalemate in the Middle East peace process.

“As in any difficult problem, neither side can expect to win 100% on every point,” Clinton said after meeting with Netanyahu and Arafat at the White House. “Concessions that seem hard now will seem far less important in the light of an accord that moves Israelis and Palestinians closer to lasting peace.”

But in their own remarks to reporters, Netanyahu and Arafat showed no sign of readiness for the kind of compromises that Clinton and his aides say are necessary if the talks are to succeed.

Netanyahu stressed Israel’s security demands, while Arafat underlined the Palestinians’ aspirations for a state of their own, in effect restating positions both sides have clung to since talks broke down early last year.

After an opening session at the White House, Netanyahu and Arafat retreated to a secluded compound on Maryland’s Eastern Shore for talks expected to last at least until Monday. Clinton joined them at the Wye Plantation about two hours later than planned, having been delayed by budget negotiations with the Republican-controlled Congress.

White House officials said Clinton does not plan to attend every negotiating session, as President Carter did during the 18-day Camp David conference in 1978 that led to the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, Israel’s first with an Arab state.

U.S. officials said the sessions essentially will be unstructured. Netanyahu and Arafat will be encouraged to spend as much time in face-to-face talks as they can handle. That may not be much because the two men clearly dislike and distrust each other.

In afternoon remarks at the opening session at the Wye River facility, Clinton emphasized that the stakes are high for Americans, Israelis and Palestinians..

“I suppose there is always a risk for everybody in an enterprise like this,” the president said just before aides disconnected the audio feed that carried the opening session to the international press center at a nearby junior college.

In addition to their joint meetings, the two Middle East leaders will meet separately with Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and peace envoy Dennis B. Ross.

“We are just going to be very, very flexible,” one senior administration official said. “There will be walks in the woods. There will be small dinners, late dinners. I expect we’ll be up late. The president likes to stay up late anyway, and so do they.”

After the hourlong opening session at the White House, Clinton delivered a brief keynote speech in the Rose Garden with Netanyahu standing to his right and Arafat to his left. Vice President Al Gore and Albright looked on.

“This week’s talks at Wye River offer the chance for the parties to break the logjam and finally take the next essential steps for peace in the Middle East,” Clinton said.

“There are certain realities that underlie these negotiations,” he said. “First, Israelis and Palestinians are neighbors. And what they must do, they must do together, or it will not be done at all. Second, mutual respect and understanding is required for any meaningful and enduring agreement. Otherwise, there can be no honorable and principled compromise.”

Except for Arafat, who was clad in his trademark military tunic and black-and-white Arab headdress, all of the participants were dressed in black or midnight blue, a somber visual confirmation of the difficult task awaiting them. Even Albright, who favors bright colors, wore a dark blue suit.

The purpose of the talks is to complete long-delayed implementation of the interim steps called for in the Israel-Palestinian peace accord negotiated in Oslo in 1993 and signed on the White House lawn. That would clear the way for negotiations on a permanent peace settlement.

Under the Oslo framework, the so-called final status talks were supposed to have started in May 1994 and continued until May 4, 1999. But with nothing accomplished in the final stage so far, the May 4 date looms as an increasingly ominous deadline. Arafat has threatened to issue a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood on that date, an act that Israeli officials say would trigger a military response.

U.S. officials hope that, at a minimum, Netanyahu and Arafat can agree to a formula to extend the deadline. But that objective will be easier to achieve if progress is made on other issues, especially if the Israelis and Palestinians can agree on a time and place to start the final talks.

Since January 1997, when Israeli and Palestinian negotiators agreed on a formula for giving the Palestinian Authority control over most of the disputed West Bank city of Hebron, the talks have been deadlocked by disputes over land and security.

The Oslo framework requires Israel to cede West Bank territory to Palestinian control in three stages, and it gives Israel the right to decide how much land to turn over. Under a U.S.-brokered compromise, Israel would yield about 13% more of the territory than it has already ceded, although about 3% would form a “nature reserve.”

Both sides have tentatively accepted the 13% solution, although Israel has said it is conditional on the Palestinians taking firmer action against terrorists who target Israel.

“We come with the best intentions, and we hope that there will be an accord,” Netanyahu told reporters. “We’re asked to give additional territory. We want to ensure that this territory doesn’t become a base and a haven for terrorists to attack us.”

Arafat said the Palestinian Authority is already doing its best to contain violence, saying, “I can give 100% effort, but no one in the world can give 100% results.”

Referring to Netanyahu, Arafat said, “Peace is the most important platform for security, and he has to remember this.”

U.S. officials have said they expect the talks to end Sunday. But Israeli Ambassador Zalman Shoval said his government assumes the summit will run until Monday, ending just in time for Netanyahu to return to Jerusalem to preside over the opening of the fall session of parliament.

On Thursday, Netanyahu suggested that the talks could go even longer, particularly if real progress is being made.

“I have obligations in the Knesset, but if [we’re] needed here,” he said, “then we’d have to think about what to do.”