Netanyahu, Arafat Stay Upbeat

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat insisted Wednesday that the peace agreement they signed last week is still on track, as both struggled to fend off stiff opposition.

Netanyahu, especially, is facing furious resistance from onetime allies on the right who oppose relinquishing West Bank land to Palestinian control and are now demanding that the prime minister be ousted.

With concerns for his safety growing, Netanyahu waded Wednesday night into the supposedly friendly halls of a convention of his Likud Party, and even there he was attacked for giving away parts of the Land of Israel.

“It is as though we lost the elections,” Likud legislator Uzi Landau told the raucous gathering. “Whoever tells you that this agreement is good, that it brings security, is lying in your face.”

Netanyahu responded over scattered heckling and vowed not to give an inch of land until the Palestinians earned it: “They give, they’ll get. They don’t, they won’t.”

Although most Israelis support the new interim peace accord, hard-liners are challenging Netanyahu. In the most extreme street protests in recent days, Netanyahu has been branded a “traitor”--an emotionally charged word here that evokes notions of revenge and punishment--and posters have shown him with Arafat, their handshake covered symbolically in blood.

The tone is chillingly reminiscent of violent language used to attack Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the time leading up to his assassination by a Jewish extremist three years ago next week. Security officials said Wednesday that they had launched an investigation into two far-right activists and increased surveillance. Netanyahu’s security detail has reportedly been beefed up.

Under the U.S.-brokered agreement hashed out during a nine-day summit at Maryland’s Wye Plantation, Israel will cede an additional 13% of the West Bank to the Palestinians, who in turn promise to take concrete steps to combat terrorism, confiscate illegal weapons and reduce their police force.

The agreement was modest and technical in nature, but it unblocked a 19-month stalemate in Middle East peacemaking, and the repercussions have electrified the political climate here.

Arafat on Wednesday returned home to the Gaza Strip and assured disaffected Palestinians that the agreement represents tangible progress toward the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

“We will go forward together, until we pray together in Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state,” he called out to the crowds that had been assembled to greet him. The status of Jerusalem remains one of the most intractable issues in the Israeli-Arab conflict, and his comments were sure to irritate the Israelis.

For the Palestinians, however, the reassurance was welcome. Many Palestinians are growing either apathetic or restless, having seen little improvement in their lives and doubting that change will occur.

The violence that has plagued the region continued, as Israel Radio reported that one person was killed and another wounded early today in a Gaza Strip car bombing near two Jewish settlements. No details about the blast or its victims were immediately available.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Arafat dismissed an Israeli decision to postpone Cabinet approval of the Wye agreement, saying he was confident that each side will hold up its end of the bargain. But several of his aides accused the Israeli leader of political cowardice and said he was looking for an excuse to put off troop withdrawal.

Netanyahu said he delayed the Cabinet session because the Palestinians were behind schedule in producing a security plan. Israeli commentators speculated that the real reason was that Netanyahu does not yet have the votes in his sharply divided Cabinet to win approval.

Under the terms of the Wye agreement, Cabinet ratification is not necessary for the pact to be carried out, U.S. officials who helped draft the document said. Implementation is supposed to begin Monday.

Still, Netanyahu could use the boost that a Cabinet OK would provide, and he said Wednesday that he was confident this latest glitch would be overcome.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with leaders of U.S. Jewish and Arab organizations to urge them to back the Wye agreements.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.