Barak and Arafat Begin to Bridge Mideast Abyss

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip —  With friendly handshakes and an exchange of gifts, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak held his first official summit Sunday with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, and the two emerged promising to work for peace but apparently disagreeing on exactly how.

The encounter at this sunbaked military border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip was an important symbolic step in renewing trust and goodwill after a prolonged, frosty stalemate between Israelis and Palestinians.

For Barak, the 80-minute session was the second stop on a whirlwind diplomatic tour that will take the new prime minister to Washington later this week in a major push to revive Mideast peace talks. Sunday’s was the first Israeli-Palestinian meeting at this level in more than seven months.

The atmosphere and mood stood in sharp contrast to those that prevailed during the three-year government of hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak, invoking the name of his mentor, the late Yitzhak Rabin--who first made peace with the Palestinians--has made clear his desire to establish a working relationship with Arafat. Arafat seems happy simply to know that Barak is not Netanyahu.

At a news conference where Barak took a feeble Arafat by the elbow and gently guided him to the lectern, the two leaders pledged, as Barak put it, to “overcome all the obstacles” that may lie ahead in the pursuit of peace. Barak attempted to allay Palestinian fears by vowing to fulfill October’s Wye Plantation accord--including the transfer of land and release of Palestinian prisoners.

Arafat referred to Barak as his sadeeq, his “friend,” and continued in Arabic: “I am confident today that, together, we can give the peace process, seriously and truly, the chance it deserves. It’s time to put an end to the cycle of violence and confrontation.”

But for all the geniality, sharp differences clearly remain.

While Barak kept his comments general, Arafat homed in repeatedly on the key demands dear to the Palestinians: an end to the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank; the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails; safe passage for Palestinians between Gaza and the West Bank; water rights; and most important, implementation of the Wye accord.

Barak emphatically declared his intention to carry out the U.S.-brokered Wye agreement, which Netanyahu signed for Israel last fall. But he also said he wants to move directly to more complicated “final status” negotiations before finishing with Wye.

This is something that the Palestinians, publicly, have adamantly opposed. They have argued that they need what Wye gives them to strengthen their hand going into the final-status talks. At Sunday’s news conference, Arafat seemed to hedge, ever so slightly, by saying he saw no conflict in implementing Wye and opening the final talks.

Under the Wye accord, Israel was to cede an additional 13% of the West Bank to Palestinian control in exchange for a wide range of counter-terrorism measures to be taken by the Palestinians. After releasing only about 2% of West Bank land, Netanyahu halted compliance amid allegations of Palestinian violations.

Now, Barak apparently wants to combine additional releases of territory with the final-status negotiations, which are designed to reach a broader settlement of the most difficult pending issues, including the status of Jerusalem and the borders of an independent Palestinian entity.

One of Arafat’s main advisors, Nabil Shaath, was quoted later as saying that the Palestinians might accept deferring the transfer of some land.

In Sunday’s encounter, Arafat and Barak also disagreed on settlements. Arafat demanded a halt to the “illegal and destructive” construction and expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and he demanded the dismantling of more than 20 outposts erected in recent months and “legalized” by the Netanyahu government in its waning days.

But Barak remained firm on settlements, saying he will block new ones but not dismantle any existing ones, instead leaving their fate to the final-status negotiations.

“The most important thing is that we want to see action on the ground,” Yasser Abed-Rabbo, a senior official in Arafat’s government, said after Sunday’s meeting.

The Palestinians are also demanding the release from Israeli jails of more than 700 men they consider political prisoners. The Netanyahu government refused to release prisoners with “blood on their hands,” but Barak said Sunday that he will reassess the problem when he returns from his journeys abroad later this month.

Ariel Sharon, the hawkish former foreign minister in Netanyahu’s government, lashed out Sunday night at the prospect of prisoner releases, foreshadowing the kind of domestic opposition that Barak is likely to encounter as he makes concessions to the Palestinians.

Barak, who in a career as one of Israel’s most legendary military commanders once plotted to assassinate Arafat, said Sunday that while his life has been dedicated to fighting for Israeli security, he also wants Palestinians to feel secure.

Such expressions of empathy for the Palestinians, coming from an Israeli premier, are rare and underscore again that both men hope they are ushering in a new era.

For nearly three months after his election, Netanyahu refused to meet with Arafat. Shaking the hand of the former terrorist was anathema to any leader of the Israeli right wing.

Barak, by contrast, shook Arafat’s hand several times Sunday, just five days after he assumed office. The 57-year-old prime minister and leader of the Labor Party and the 69-year-old head of the Palestine Liberation Organization had met previously in less formal circumstances, so they were not completely unknown to each other.

“I have no illusions,” Barak said, “and I believe the chairman has no illusions, that we are going into tough, long negotiations with many ups and downs and crises.”