Peace Talks Begin Amid Pessimism

JERUSALEM — Israeli and Palestinian negotiators opened what they promised will be marathon peace talks at an Egyptian resort Sunday night, but with just 16 days to go until an Israeli election, both sides were pessimistic about achieving a breakthrough.

“In the short time left, with the gaps that exist, the chance of bridging them is not great,” caretaker Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Army Radio.

The talks began in the Red Sea resort of Taba during a lull in the violence that has claimed about 370 lives in the last four months. On Sunday, Israeli troops shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian who the army said was in a group throwing stones at soldiers near the Karni crossing in the Gaza Strip. However, Barak told his Cabinet that there had been a sharp drop in violent incidents in the last 11 days.

Still, members of the opposition attacked Barak for negotiating with the Palestinians so close to the Feb. 6 balloting for prime minister.

“[Palestinian Authority President] Yasser Arafat knows that Ehud Barak has no real authority,” said Likud Party lawmaker Ruby Rivlin. With Barak trailing hawkish Likud leader Ariel Sharon by about 20 percentage points in opinion polls, the only reason for the talks, Rivlin said, “is to serve the prime minister in these elections.”

Even some Cabinet members criticized the resumption of talks. Interior Minister Haim Ramon said it is “immoral” to negotiate now, and Communications Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a confidant of Barak, said the talks would only serve Palestinian interests.

But Barak told his Cabinet that Israel could not afford to refuse a Palestinian offer to negotiate. Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority wishes to appear obstructionist to the new Bush administration. And the beleaguered prime minister needs to demonstrate to left-wing voters and the left wing of his Labor Party that he is still pursuing peace.

Dovish members of his own party and some members of the left-wing Meretz Party, his onetime coalition partner, continue to pressure Barak to step aside as a candidate in favor of elder Labor Party statesman Shimon Peres--a move Barak can legally make until 96 hours before the polls open. Barak may be able to silence those calling for him to quit if he produces an agreement with the Palestinians.

Barak angrily cut short his interview with Army Radio on Sunday when the host, Razi Barkai, pressed him to say whether he was going to quit the race or would quit politics if he lost the election.

“I’m not prepared to deal with this issue,” Barak said.

Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, who is leading Israel’s delegation to the new talks, said the two sides might achieve a framework for a final accord in the seven to 10 days they plan to talk. But the Israelis flew to Taba constrained by red lines--laid out by Barak and unanimously approved by the Cabinet--that one Palestinian negotiator said doomed the negotiations to failure.

Israel will not “under any circumstances” allow a right of return for Palestinian refugees who wish to come back to their homes inside Israel, Barak said in a statement issued after he met with his Cabinet. Israel also will not sign an agreement that grants the Palestinians sovereignty over Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a disputed holy site known to Muslims as the Haram al Sharif, or “noble sanctuary.” And Israel will insist that any agreement will leave about 80% of the nearly 200,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and Gaza in blocs under Israeli control.

“I believe with this position the Israeli government has destined the talks to failure before they begin,” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

The atmosphere for the talks was further clouded when Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced that the country will no longer permit the operation of a special commission set up by President Clinton to investigate the causes of the violence that erupted in September. Foreign Ministry Director General Alon Liel said Israel decided to freeze the committee’s work after its technical team visited the Temple Mount without informing Israel. The committee is headed by former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell.

Liel said the committee will not be allowed to work here until it coordinates with the Bush administration. The Palestinians had made the committee’s formation a condition for resuming talks with Israel in October.

Also Sunday, a Jerusalem District Court judge sentenced a Jewish settler to six months of community service for beating to death an 11-year-old Palestinian boy four years ago. Palestinians condemned the sentence as too lenient.

Nahum Korman, 36, also received a 15-month suspended prison term and was fined $17,000 for the death of Hilmi Shousha. Korman was the security chief of the Hadar Beitar settlement in the West Bank in 1996 when he chased Shousha after stones were thrown at Jewish settlers in the town of Hussan. Israeli authorities charged Korman with kicking the boy to the ground and beating his head with a pistol butt. Shousha died in a hospital the day after the attack.

“He killed, he killed. How does he get community service?” an outraged Sair Shousha, the boy’s father, asked on Israel Radio.

Human rights group Palestinian Global Dialogue and Democracy said the sentence “proved without a doubt that the Israeli government and its justice system were accomplices of the settlers in their crimes against Palestinians.”