New Accord Paves Way for Final Settlement : Mideast: Israeli premier pledges to work with Palestinians to produce a lasting peace. Arafat repeats statehood goal, one of most contentious issues in future negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat signed a new agreement early today that both described as a way station toward a final settlement of the century-old conflict over the Holy Land.

With Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Jordan’s King Abdullah II signing as witnesses, Barak and Arafat basked in the latest act of a process that both called “the peace of the brave.”

There was none of the apparent distaste at dealing with old adversaries that marked some earlier steps in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. After signing the pact, Barak and Arafat leaped up for a warm handshake. Then both men exchanged European-style two-cheek kisses with Albright.

But Arafat, in an otherwise celebratory speech, left little doubt that the next round of negotiations--intended to establish the framework for a permanent peace treaty by Feb. 15--will be difficult.

He said he is determined to “build our independent Palestinian state with its capital in Holy Jerusalem.” He also called for an end to “all [Jewish] settlement activity” in the West Bank and Gaza.

Palestinian statehood, Israeli settlements and the status of Jerusalem are among the most emotional and difficult issues to be covered in the so-called final-status negotiations.

For his part, Barak pledged to work with Arafat and the Palestinians to produce a lasting peace “in this beloved land where our two people will always live.” He added: “I also want the Palestinians to feel secure and prosperous.”

At Camp David, Md., President Clinton hailed the agreement and pledged continuing U.S. support.

“We will do everything we can to be supportive all along the way and to achieve our larger goal: a just and lasting comprehensive peace in the entire region, including Syria and Lebanon,” Clinton said. “I hope today’s progress is seen by the leaders of the Middle East as a steppingstone for that larger goal.”

The agreement was needed to implement the pact signed last fall after a week of intensive negotiations, with Clinton acting as mediator, at the Wye Plantation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. But that measure was essentially a U.S. job, written by American diplomats and sold to then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Arafat through unrelenting U.S. pressure.

The new agreement is different. Although a last-minute push by Albright was needed to clear away a few snags, the document was written by Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams led by Gilad Sher of Israel and Saeb Erekat representing the Palestinians.

“The two sides have begun to rebuild their partnership, a partnership that is . . . vital to the region’s future,” Albright said in her speech at the signing ceremony.

A senior U.S. official who played an active role in the negotiations said the talks will pay off in the future in terms of increased trust between the longtime adversaries.

Netanyahu, who was defeated by Barak in Israel’s May elections, disliked and distrusted direct meetings with Palestinian officials. During his three years in office, the two sides met infrequently and ineffectively, the U.S. official said.

The official said Albright and other U.S. mediators stepped in only at the last minute of these talks, essentially to give the bargainers a way to vent their anger and frustration.

In Israel and the Palestinian territories, meanwhile, support for the deal was far from unanimous--a reminder of the difficulties that lie ahead both in implementing what has been agreed upon and negotiating the future steps. On both ends of the conflict, there was skepticism that negotiators will be able to complete a final-status framework by February.

“The expectation that this can be done in six months is crazy,” said Khalil Shikaki, director of the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, a think tank in the West Bank city of Nablus, “unless one has in mind to get two very clever diplomats who can only hide disagreements rather than address them. This is what I’m afraid of. We have spent the last six years just trying to implement the Declaration of Principles [reached by the two sides in Oslo in 1993]. The experience of the past six years is not encouraging.”

Many Palestinians were bitterly disappointed that Arafat, in agreeing to the yearlong final-status talks, forfeited what until now had been his most valuable trump card: the threat to unilaterally declare an independent state.

Several hundred angry Palestinians demonstrated Saturday in Bethlehem, Hebron and other cities, demanding release of Palestinians still held in Israeli prisons on charges of terrorism and other anti-Israel activities. Israel has agreed to release 350 prisoners but not any who killed Israelis.

Predictably, Israel’s right wing condemned the agreement outright, as did militant Palestinians.

Former Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, who is now head of the right-wing opposition Likud Party, accused Barak of “moral bankruptcy.”

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Islamic Hamas movement that violently opposes peace with Israel, attacked the deal as a climb-down from meager previous agreements and blamed U.S. pressure.

The deal calls for Israel to turn over to the Palestinian Authority an additional 11% of West Bank land in three stages, starting this month and ending in January. It also calls for an increase in counter-terrorism cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces, a start on construction of a seaport and opening a road to provide safe passage between Gaza and the West Bank, the two wings of territory under Palestinian self-rule.

The ceremony began about eight minutes after midnight. It was scheduled for late at night to give Barak and his delegation time to reach the site after the Jewish Sabbath ended at sundown Saturday. It was held in Egypt in recognition of Cairo’s support for the peace process.

“Both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples desire to live in peace and dignity,” Mubarak said. “They have suffered enough from bloodshed and tension. They are entitled to a new era of coexistence and peaceful interaction. Let us all vow to turn a new chapter in the history of this troubled region.”

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Kempster reported from Sharm el Sheik and Wilkinson from Jerusalem.

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The Steps Toward Peace

The Israeli-Palestinian accord reached Friday is the sixth since the secret launch of negotiations in Oslo, the Norwegian capital.

Sept. 13, 1993: Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization sign a peace deal on the White House lawn, after decades as sworn enemies, and seal it with a handshake between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

Known as the Oslo accord, the deal is an outline for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. Palestinians view it as a formula for statehood.

May 4, 1994: Israel and the PLO sign the Gaza-Jericho deal giving limited self-rule to the 2 million Palestinians living under occupation and committing Israel to withdrawal of troops from most of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Jericho. The deal, signed in Cairo after a late hitch, clears the way for Arafat’s return in July 1994 from a life in exile.

Sept. 28, 1995: At a White House ceremony, Israel and the PLO sign an accord for the phased withdrawal of most Israeli troops from their 28-year occupation of the West Bank.

The 400-page deal, known as Oslo II, gives self-rule to Palestinians in Bethlehem, Janin, Nablus, Ramallah, Kalqilya and Tulkarm and parts of Hebron as well as 450 villages but allows Israeli-guarded Jewish settlements to remain.

Jan. 15, 1997: Palestinians sign a deal with the government of right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that clears the way for the long-delayed hand-over of 80% of Hebron to Palestinian rule.

It provides for three more hand-overs of rural West Bank land and a series of reciprocal commitments. The U.S.-brokered Hebron deal constitutes an ideological about-face for Netanyahu, who had always opposed the land-for-peace formula.

Oct. 23, 1998: Arafat, Netanyahu and President Clinton hold a nine-day summit at the Wye Plantation in Maryland that ends with a White House signing of a land-for-security peace deal.

The agreement foresees an Israeli withdrawal from an additional 13% of the West Bank in exchange for Palestinian security measures. Netanyahu releases some land but freezes the deal two months later, saying Palestinians failed to meet their commitments.

Sept. 3, 1999: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who defeated Netanyahu in May elections on a promise to accelerate peace moves, forges a deal with Arafat to carry out the Wye agreement under modified terms. The deal was signed Saturday in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.

The pact brings Palestinians closer to their dream of statehood, giving them control of 40% of the West Bank, safe passage routes between Gaza and the West Bank and providing a new timetable for negotiations on a final peace.

Source: Reuters