Netanyahu, Arafat Meet One on One

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat met alone for more than an hour Friday in their first face-to-face negotiations of the Wye Plantation summit, prompting U.S. officials to proclaim a “better, more constructive attitude” between the longtime antagonists.

“The pace of the work, the seriousness of the work, the pragmatism that the delegations are bringing to bear, the constructive approach is there,” State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said. “Whether that will be enough is still an open question.”

Rubin said Israeli and Palestinian experts were hard at work on such long-festering disputes as safe passage for Palestinians between the fractured enclaves under Arafat’s jurisdiction, conditions for opening an airport in the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip, economic issues and Israeli security concerns.

Netanyahu and Arafat, accompanied only by interpreters, met outdoors at the secluded conference center on a brilliantly sunny fall day.

Although they have met several times in the presence of U.S. mediators during the last two weeks, it was their first one-on-one discussion in more than a year. Two of their key aides, Israeli Industry Minister Natan Sharansky and Palestinian strategist Nabil Shaath, held their own outdoor meeting at the same time.

Later, Netanyahu and Arafat joined Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for lunch at the Israeli delegation lodge. The full U.S., Israeli and Palestinian delegations also had dinner together Thursday night.

Only a week ago, Netanyahu and Arafat shared their first substantial meal when they lunched with Albright in a Palestinian guest house in the Gaza Strip. Now, U.S. officials said, such events are becoming routine.

“It does appear that there is a better and more constructive and more pragmatic atmosphere to work on these problems than there had been in the past,” Rubin said.

President Clinton, speaking at a fund-raising event for Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) in Chicago, said of Arafat and Netanyahu: “I’m convinced they’re both really trying to breach the gaps between them.”

Nevertheless, U.S. officials sought to maintain a virtual blackout on information about the substance of the talks. In a face-off that contrasted with the official version of cordiality, the State Department’s Rubin berated Israeli and Palestinian spokesmen for talking too much to reporters gathered at Chesapeake College near the summit site.

When he spotted Aviv Bushinsky, a Netanyahu spokesman, talking in Hebrew to Israeli reporters, Rubin complained that it was a violation of the rules of the conference. He made the same point to Marwan Kanafani, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council who was also being interviewed.

Neither Bushinsky nor Kanafani stopped talking, but neither man disclosed much real information.

An Israeli official said he detected progress on some aspects of security, such as Israel’s demand that the Palestinians confiscate illegal arms, but not on its demand that the Palestinians hand over 36 people implicated in the deaths of Israelis.

Clinton, the official summit host, planned to return to Wye Plantation at midday today for meetings with Netanyahu and Arafat.

The Israeli delegation declined to conduct formal business during the Jewish Sabbath, which extends from sundown Friday until sundown tonight. Albright had a working dinner with Arafat and the Palestinians on Friday night.

Times staff writer James Gerstenzang in Chicago contributed to this report.