Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks Run Aground

It was a relatively rare public, and daylight, meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, intended to showcase goodwill and at least a modicum of progress in their peace negotiations, even as Israeli-Syrian talks remain stymied.

But Thursday’s summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat at this crossing on the edge of the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip exhibited neither, ending in disagreement over the next Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank.

The Palestinians quickly declared the dispute a crisis and angrily accused Israel of attempting to dictate terms of both the land transfers and the talks. Israeli officials, including Barak, acknowledged the difficulties but said the discussions will continue, with negotiators scheduled to meet again Sunday.

“The talks with the Palestinians are going through a difficult patch marked by significant tensions and substantial differences,” Barak said in a speech to Labor Party activists in Tel Aviv on Thursday night, according to the Agence France-Presse news service. But he said the problems will be overcome.

Thursday’s midday meeting, which lasted a little over two hours, was intended to push for progress toward reaching a Feb. 13 target on a framework for a final peace deal--or at least to formally extend the deadline. The public summit followed three private, late-night meetings between the two leaders at secret locations in recent months.

But Barak’s spokesman, Gadi Baltiansky, later acknowledged what increasingly has seemed inevitable: that the two sides will not reach the ambitious deadline for producing the detailed blueprint, which is supposed to be followed by a final treaty in September.

Israeli and Palestinian officials have said they remain far apart on all major issues of their conflict, including refugees, settlements, borders and, perhaps most difficult of all, the status of the holy city of Jerusalem.

The Gaza talks were also meant to clear the way for Israel to transfer an additional 6% of the West Bank to the Palestinians, the latest in a series of troop withdrawals from the occupied territory stipulated under an agreement reached last September. Barak’s security Cabinet announced the pullback Wednesday and said it would take place by Feb. 10.

But Arafat on Thursday rejected maps outlining the chunks of land Israel wants to include in the transfer, which are near the West Bank cities of Hebron, Ramallah and Janin, and not adjacent to Jerusalem. The Palestinians, who hope to establish a capital in East Jerusalem one day, have made no secret of their desire to gain control of Arab villages on the city’s eastern and northern outskirts. They had asked Israel to include some of that land in the next withdrawal.

Israel insists that it alone has the right to determine the areas to be handed over, while the Palestinians argue that they should have a say. Late last year, another withdrawal was held up for seven weeks while the sides debated the same issue. The Palestinians finally accepted the original proposal after Israel agreed to listen to Palestinian concerns before finalizing further hand-overs.

“We said to Mr. Barak today, ‘Why hold these meetings, why negotiate with us if you are going to decide on everything?’ ” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said after Thursday’s meeting. “It’s a crisis, with a real erosion of trust between the two sides.”

He said Barak had urged Arafat to accept the 6% offer and also asked him to accept a delay of any further land transfers until a final peace treaty is reached. But the Palestinian leader rejected both requests, Erekat said.

Erekat later met U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis B. Ross to discuss the deadlock. He said Ross would hold talks with Arafat today, for the second time this week.

The Palestinians are seeking more direct U.S. involvement in the peace process, but Barak has been steadfast in saying the two sides should resolve their disputes on their own.

Some Israeli officials said they believe that Thursday’s disagreement may have sprung, in part, from the Palestinian desire to involve the U.S. more deeply in the discussions.

A U.S. official agreed: “It’s all part of the ups and downs of the peace process--but Arafat is clearly looking to get American engagement at a fairly high level.”

In Gaza City, meanwhile, not far from the border crossing, the 129-member Palestinian Central Council issued a statement calling for an independent Palestinian state to be declared this year. The action is expected to pressure all sides to move forward with the peace process, or risk a unilateral declaration by the Palestinians without agreement from Israel.