U.S. Steps Up Diplomacy on Mideast Peace

Calling on allies in Europe and the Arab world to help, the United States on Monday engaged in intense diplomacy with Israel and the Palestinians in a bid to reduce bloodshed and generate momentum for a peace proposal to be debated this week at an Arab League summit.

The Bush administration quietly tried to win Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s approval for Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to attend the summit in Beirut, which begins Wednesday.

In return, Arafat would have to come back immediately to pursue talks with Israel rather than launching a world tour to rally support. Washington also wants assurances from Israel that Arafat will be allowed to return to the West Bank, where he has been virtually confined for more than three months.

U.S. officials said they were somewhat optimistic about winning Sharon’s approval, barring another devastating attack on Israelis.

In Israel, Sharon’s deeply divided Cabinet debated Monday night whether to let Arafat travel to the summit. Hard-liners who dominate the government argued against allowing Arafat to go. As an alternative, some suggested allowing him to attend but not letting him return.

Sharon said he would make a final decision today, after Foreign Minister Shimon Peres returned to Israel. Both Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, moderates in the government, advocate letting Arafat go.

Arafat’s presence at the summit is considered crucial to winning approval of a Saudi peace proposal that would provide Israel with full Arab recognition in exchange for its withdrawal from lands it occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.

‘Time for Arab Nations to Seize the Moment’

To spur behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts, President Bush called on Sharon to allow Arafat to attend what could be a historic summit. At the same time, Bush urged the Arab League to embrace the peace proposal.

“The president believes that the best way to pursue peace, as far as the Arab summit, would be for Chairman Arafat to travel there,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. “The president believes it is time for Arab nations in the region to seize the moment, to create a better environment for peace to take root.”

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell spoke by phone with Sharon and Arafat over the weekend and on Monday, according to U.S. officials.

Washington also has encouraged the European Union, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Britain and Germany to apply pressure.

Powell talked with Arafat for about 30 minutes Monday and urged him to publicly condemn the escalating violence in “clear and unambiguous” terms, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Reining in Palestinian militants, including Arafat’s own faction, is critical to reviving a cease-fire plan drawn up by CIA Director George J. Tenet. U.S. special envoy Anthony C. Zinni is currently mapping out steps that both sides could take to end the violence, a senior State Department official said.

The official added that Powell made clear to Arafat that if Israel did allow him free passage to the summit, he should not use it to go on a “world tour.”

Sharon reiterated his determination to keep Arafat confined to the West Bank city of Ramallah unless Palestinian attacks on Israelis came to a halt. In his telephone conversation with Powell, Sharon said restrictions on Arafat were “a matter of principle,” Israeli television reported.

The liberal daily Haaretz said refusal to release Arafat would send the wrong message to the Arab world and could doom the Saudi initiative.

Arafat Must Be Kept Confined, Some Say

But Danny Naveh, a Cabinet minister from Sharon’s right-wing Likud Party, said Arafat should not be allowed to go anywhere.

“I’m convinced that many in Israel are asking themselves what has actually happened. Has Arafat suddenly changed his ways, has he stopped being a terrorist, has he started to fight against terror?” Naveh said. “All Arafat wants is some cheap ticket to Beirut and perhaps some American recognition in the form of a passing grade.”

Education Minister Limor Livnat, also from Likud, said Arafat’s “war of terrorism” had made him an enemy who should not enjoy privileges such as safe passage.

“He is an enemy as far as we are concerned, and an enemy cannot move, cannot leave, cannot travel, and we can’t talk to him and we can’t negotiate with him,” she said. “An enemy is an enemy is an enemy.”

On the Palestinian side, senior mediator Saeb Erekat said Israel’s restrictions on Arafat violate signed treaties. “Mr. Sharon must stop this blackmail,” he said outside Arafat’s Ramallah compound.

Palestinian officials said that if Arafat did not travel to Beirut, he would deliver a speech by a live television hookup.

Israel’s leftist Meretz Party demanded Arafat’s “unconditional” release because, it said, Israel’s best interest would be served by the success of the summit.

‘Focus Will Be on the Palestinian Question’

From Sharon’s perspective, Israel stands to lose whether Arafat goes or stays. If he goes, he could use the summit as a platform to denounce Israel and could emerge as a survivor who has defied the Jewish state and who remains the indispensable leader of the Palestinian struggle.

If he stays in the West Bank, he could play the role of martyr and his empty chair at the summit would be in the spotlight. He might even enjoy greater stature among the Arab states by not being there.

“Either way, the focus will be on the Palestinian question and Arafat,” said Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, a political scientist at Tel Aviv University.

“Israel will call more attention to itself by preventing him from going than by letting him go where he will interact with leaders who don’t have a great love for him,” Maddy-Weitzman said. “If he doesn’t go, the summit will become much more about his absence, he will be remembered as a hero, he will bolster his image and score points.”

Some analysts suggest that Arafat might actually prefer to stay home, especially if the summit is dominated by the Saudi peace initiative.

Israeli commentator Sever Plotzker, writing Monday in Israel’s largest daily, Yediot Aharonot, said that what Arafat really wants is for Israel to forbid him to travel, since that would make the Jewish state look bad.

“That in itself is a good reason to tell him: Go, Yasser, go,” Plotzker wrote. “As far as we’re concerned, you can go and you can come back. You’re here, you’re there, it doesn’t matter. Terrorism will continue anyway and, in any case, an agreement is getting farther away.”

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Wright reported from Washington and Wilkinson from Jerusalem.