Barak Hopes Slow Road to Peace Brings Lasting Results

The road to peace, says Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, can be either a short, bumpy route that may or may not lead to the destination, or a main highway that takes longer to traverse but is certain to get to where you want to go.

And so Barak is working to steer his Palestinian negotiating partners to the longer road in the pursuit of a final settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, despite growing angst among Palestinians nervous about the slow pace of fulfilling agreements already made.

In an interview Thursday with The Times, Barak was generally upbeat about a Middle East peace process that he believes he has succeeded in reviving since taking office six weeks ago. Yet he also warned of the dire “Balkan-type” consequences of failure.

“If we fail, we will not just be thrown back to the Oslo [peace accord] of six years ago,” he said. “It might throw us back generations. It might lead at a certain point to an eruption of a full cycle of violence, and maybe not just with the Palestinians.”

Barak’s assessment came as Palestinian officials protested an Israeli refusal to expand the criteria for releasing Palestinian prisoners, a dispute that could threaten broader talks.

Under an agreement made as part of last year’s U.S.-brokered Wye Plantation accord, Israel said it would free a number of jailed Palestinians. But the two sides disagree on the number and kinds of prisoners to be released.

Acknowledging that it remained a very sensitive issue that had provoked what he termed a crisis, Barak said he could not free convicted murderers. However, he said that his government will look at cases “name by name” and that he expected several hundred Palestinians to be freed in the next couple of months.

“I believe the crisis will be left behind us in a few days,” Barak said.

Indeed, negotiations on the issue resumed late Thursday after breaking down a day earlier.

Palestinian officials are demanding the release of 650 men, most of them members of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. Arafat has taken a lot of heat from his public for failure to secure the release of these prisoners, most of whom, the Palestinians note, were following Arafat’s orders when they committed the acts for which they were jailed.

If the Israeli government can sit down to negotiate with Arafat, the Palestinians argue, then it should be willing to release his foot soldiers. But families of the Israeli victims remain adamantly opposed to freedom for those who spilled Jewish blood.

Barak said his Cabinet decided this week to release Khalil Saadi Raei, Israel’s longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, as a goodwill gesture--”a signal we are serious about the prisoners and we are determined to move forward on Wye.”

Raei, 45, had served 25 years of a life sentence for his role in planning the 1973 slaying of an Israeli police officer. He went home Wednesday night to chants of “God is great” from his family and a crowd of well-wishers.

Barak pledged to fulfill the terms of the Wye Plantation land-for-security agreement--most notably Israeli withdrawal from additional portions of the West Bank--but wants to lengthen the timeline for these steps well into next year. The West Bank withdrawals could begin as early as October but would not be completed until January or February, when Barak hopes to initiate the so-called final-status talks on a permanent settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Stretching it out, he says, will make the path smoother and more secure than what he sees as the bumpier, more piecemeal Wye implementation, which risks outbursts from Jewish settlers or Palestinian extremists. The Wye agreement originally called for the hand-over of 13% of the West Bank over a 12-week period but didn’t address other major issues.

Although the Palestinians have insisted that all the Wye accord provisions be fulfilled before final-status talks--which will include the most difficult issues, such as the status of Jerusalem and fate of refugees--Barak said he sees a better than 50-50 chance that Arafat will accept his proposal.

But if not--if Arafat insists on immediate implementation, rather than trying to shape the “grand contours” of a permanent agreement--”we’ll say OK,” Barak said. “We’ll be there together, and we’ll share the responsibility” for the decision.

A notorious night owl, Barak looked tired during the morning interview inside Israel’s fortified Defense Ministry here. But he also seemed at ease, chuckling readily and becoming animated when describing his vision and ideas.

Barak, a former general and Israel’s most decorated soldier, won office in a landslide election May 17, defeating hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who signed the Wye agreement in October but later froze implementation of most provisions.

Despite a growing disillusionment among many Palestinians who do not yet trust Barak, the Israeli leader said he was comfortable negotiating with Arafat, his erstwhile battlefield foe. The premier characterized the relationship as one of respect, though not necessarily a cozy friendship.

“He is a devoted leader for his cause,” Barak said. Moreover, “he is the man we have to make our deals with. I don’t expect him to become a member of B’nai B’rith or the Zionist movement. But I perceive him as a partner for negotiations.

“We have to solve real problems for our people, and I’m determined to do just that,” Barak said. “He’s the leader of the Palestinians, I’m the prime minister of Israel. For the next eight years, which is not a short time, we’ll have to solve things together, for better or worse.”

Barak reiterated his determination to negotiate peace with Syria, Israel’s most implacable Arab foe. But he said he had “not a single hint” about how those talks might begin. Initial overtures from Syria have been positive, however, and this week Syrian officials said they expect an upcoming visit by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to help start Israeli-Syrian talks, frozen nearly four years ago.

Albright will also visit Israel--she delayed a trip there until early September at Barak’s request. Advocating a less interventionist role by the U.S., Barak was eager to settle more of the outstanding disputes with the Palestinians before Albright’s arrival. He repeated that desire Thursday.

Barak said it was in the interests of both Israelis and Palestinians, not to mention the Americans, to resolve the Middle East’s “100-year-old conflict” before it’s too late.

“Memories, blood, graves, religion, territory, culture, ethnic roots--you have all the ingredients for a Belfast-type . . . or Balkan-type conflict,” he said. “Here we have an opportunity to avoid it by taking tough decisions. . . . We are not afraid of the alternatives, but they are clearly worse.”