Smiles Gone as Barak, Arafat Differ on Peace Steps

The honeymoon smiles between new Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were replaced Monday by public recrimination over a long-delayed land-for-security peace deal.

Arafat accused Barak of trying to get out of last fall’s U.S.-brokered Wye Plantation agreement, which requires Israel to relinquish an additional 13% of the West Bank to Palestinian control.

“There is an attempt to avoid the accurate and honest implementation of the [Wye] agreement,” Arafat said upon returning to the Gaza Strip on Monday morning from Cairo, where he met with dissident Palestinian groups.

It was the first time that the president of the Palestinian Authority has publicly criticized the new Israeli premier. Just three weeks ago, Arafat called Barak his “friend and partner” as he celebrated the fact that he no longer had to deal with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the hard-liner defeated by Barak in Israel’s May elections.

Netanyahu froze the Wye pact in December after ceding control of a little more than 2% of West Bank land.

Barak has repeatedly sought Palestinian acquiescence in delaying the further withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank under the Wye accord, and on Sunday he told his Cabinet that he would consider a partial pullback in “early October.”

Too little, too late, the Palestinians complained Monday, as headlines in many Israeli and Palestinian newspapers heralded the first “crisis” in the Barak-Arafat era. Senior Palestinian negotiators said they were reminded of the old Netanyahu days, when the two sides were paralyzed by ill will.

Whether this is a real crisis or just posturing ahead of serious deal-making--and the arrival later this month of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright--remains to be seen.

The Israeli government was dismayed by the Palestinian “inflexibility” but downplayed the significance of the spat, trotting out several key Cabinet ministers to note that the agreement eventually will be fulfilled. It’s all a matter of timing, not substance, they said. Barak has said he wants to complete the West Bank withdrawals, but only as part of a final, comprehensive settlement.

The Palestinians have been nervous about losing the U.S. patronage they’ve enjoyed in the past couple of years, when the Clinton administration was often frustrated in its efforts to deal with Netanyahu. Barak aims to reduce the U.S. role, and the Palestinians, ahead of the Albright visit, may feel they need the appearance of crisis to keep the Americans engaged, analysts here said.

More than Israel’s floating of a possible October withdrawal date, the Palestinians were peeved at what they called a breakdown in talks between Barak’s envoy, attorney Gilad Sher, and the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat. The two were supposed to be going over details of how to carry out the Wye agreement.

Erekat walked out of the meeting late Sunday, after four hours, and told reporters, “There is no point in continuing to sit under these conditions.”

Barak, in Moscow for his first meeting with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, said Monday that he was confident Sher and Erekat will meet again soon. Barak was quoted as saying he wants to “sit with Arafat” and hear his solutions to the vexing problems of what to do with Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

The Israeli military withdrawal from West Bank territory should have been completed by January. On the surface, it might seem that waiting until October at this point is not such a long time, especially since Jewish holidays will shut things down for much of September. But the Palestinians had hoped for earlier concrete steps--at the least, the release of hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails whose liberation also was part of the Wye agreement.