Mideast Talks Go From Wobbly to Flip-Floppy

In the space of a few hours Tuesday, Israel announced that it was suspending peace talks with the Palestinians, then said the halting of contacts had no diplomatic significance, then said the talks were back on.

The four-hour interruption in the peace process was one of the more bizarre twists in the often acrimonious, on-again-off-again talks held since July, when the Camp David summit ended in failure. It came as the White House was assessing the next step in its push to close a deal in the next few weeks, and as Israelis and Palestinians were publicly lambasting each other as being intransigent.

Danny Yatom, a senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, told Army Radio late Tuesday afternoon that the government was suspending talks with the Palestinians.

“We decided on a brief timeout to summarize positions so far and to make our own assessment,” Yatom said.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the suspension “regrettable” and said he had been given short notice by the Israelis that they were canceling three days of sessions between Erekat and his counterpart, lawyer Gilead Sher, scheduled to begin Tuesday. The two sides had earlier committed themselves to intense negotiations in an effort to reach a comprehensive peace deal before the U.S. presidential election in November.

“It is obvious that the Israeli government is trying to assign blame to us, but on the other hand, they are closing all the doors to any progress,” Erekat said.

Barak later seemed to put a different spin on his advisor’s statement. “In reality, the negotiations came to an end already at Camp David, when [Palestinian Authority President Yasser] Arafat refused to discuss President Clinton’s proposals,” Barak told reporters, referring to compromises offered by the U.S. leader. “Since then, there have been contacts and dialogue--but negotiations will resume only when Arafat agrees to discuss ideas raised by Clinton at Camp David and since then.”

Later, Barak’s media advisor, Gadi Baltiansky, issued a statement saying that “Israel does not attach any diplomatic importance to the non-holding of this meeting, or any other within the series of contacts, and thus the Palestinian response is out of place.”

Israeli television news on Tuesday night described the suspension as a bit of muscle-flexing by the Israelis, who have been angered by recent statements of Palestinian negotiators that the talks have been a waste of time. But the broadcast ended with a news flash from Barak’s office: Baltiansky had announced that talks would resume today, with a meeting between Erekat and Sher “to check how and where the contacts will continue.”

Yet the matter wasn’t over. Palestinian officials later called for a delay in today’s meeting, saying in a statement, “The Palestinian leadership decided not to resume the negotiations without having an official clarification by the prime minister of Israel about his decisions . . . which confused us.”

U.S. officials put the incident down to frustration on the part of Barak, who hopes to have an agreement completed with the Palestinians before the Israeli parliament reconvenes in October. His government, weakened by the desertion of religious and other parties, may not survive a no-confidence vote, and Barak would prefer to go into early elections with a completed accord.

“Israelis and Palestinians have been in discussion with one another since Camp David, and we hope that those contacts will continue,” the U.S. State Department said Tuesday night. “Continuing dialogue is in the interest of both sides. At the same time, no one should be surprised that this process should have ups and downs. The parties are clearly wrestling with very difficult issues.”