Rice Voices Hope in Mideast

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, striking a note of optimism on her first visit to the Middle East as the top U.S. diplomat, urged Israeli leaders Sunday to make the “hard decisions” needed to promote a democratic Palestinian state and put the peace process back on track.

Rice met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon just days before a planned Middle East summit aimed at resuscitating efforts to end more than four years of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

“This is a hopeful time, but this also is a time of great responsibility for all of us to make certain that we act on the words that we speak,” she told reporters with Sharon at her side. The prime minister said the visit “will contribute to the peace process, which we would so much like to advance in the region.”

Rice’s visit came on a day that saw conciliatory gestures from both sides. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Cabinet on Sunday that the army would hold off on operations aimed at capturing Palestinian militants, Israeli media reported. The mainstream Palestinian movement Fatah, meanwhile, issued a call for a mutual cease-fire with Israel.

Also this weekend, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators made headway in resolving differences over the number of prisoners Israel will free as a goodwill gesture, an issue expected to be on the agenda at Tuesday’s summit in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.

In a television interview after her meeting with Sharon, Rice urged Israel to avoid taking unilateral action on issues reserved for formal peace talks, such as the status of Jerusalem, which is claimed by both sides.

Rice has said she plans to be directly involved in efforts to revive the U.S.-backed “road map” to peace at a time when the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israel’s plan to abandon the Gaza Strip have created perhaps the most promising chance for progress since violence erupted in September 2000.

“We will ask of our partners and our friends here in Israel that Israel continue to make the hard decisions that must be taken in order to promote peace and help the emergence of a democratic Palestinian state,” Rice said after a meeting with Israel’s foreign minister, Silvan Shalom.

She also vowed to back Israel in the fight against terrorism.

Rice will meet with Palestinian officials, including newly elected Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, today before heading to Rome as part of an eight-day trip.

The Mideast stop is meant to underscore the Bush administration’s determination to revive its road-map initiative, which stalled because neither side lived up to preliminary commitments.

President Bush has been criticized for taking a hands-off approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after watching his predecessor, Bill Clinton, fail in an intensive personal effort to broker an agreement.

Administration officials say they plan to move cautiously by helping Israel and the Palestinians build trust through their own talks and incremental moves, rather than trying to steer the agenda.

Rice, for example, will not attend Tuesday’s four-way summit at Sharm el Sheik. The summit, hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, will be the first face-to-face meeting between Sharon and Abbas since Abbas became Palestinian Authority president in January. Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who in 2003 hosted a summit attended by Sharon, Abbas and Bush, will also attend.

There were reports that Israeli officials were unenthusiastic about Rice’s visit out of concern that a U.S. mediation bid would push Israel for concessions it was not ready to make. Palestinian officials say any progress will require international pressure on Israel, especially from the United States.

“In Israel, there is concern that an American mediator will assist Abbas beyond the level at which Sharon is comfortable with, and by this weaken the Israeli position,” diplomatic writer Aluf Benn wrote in the daily Haaretz newspaper.

Security arrangements and the release of Palestinian prisoners are among the issues on the table as Israelis and Palestinians work to bridge differences in advance of the summit.

Mofaz, the defense minister, said Sunday that he had approved the release from prison of the teenage son of Marwan Barghouti, an immensely popular uprising leader imprisoned in connection with the slayings of five people. Israel has so far ruled against Palestinian calls to free the elder Barghouti.

Over the weekend, Sharon aide Dov Weisglass and Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian security chief representing Abbas, agreed to set up a joint committee that would review the list of prisoners who could be freed after the summit.

Last week, senior Israeli officials approved releasing 900 prisoners but insisted that Israel would not free anyone involved in fatal attacks on Israelis. But Palestinian officials complained that the number was insufficient, a fraction of the more than 7,000 Palestinians held by Israel. They also argued for the release of aging prisoners, in their 60s, who were incarcerated before the 1993 Oslo accords.

Those older prisoners would be ineligible for pardon under Israel’s stated policy of holding on to anyone with “blood on their hands.” But freeing them would boost Abbas among the Palestinian public, for whom the prisoner issue is emotional, thus strengthening his hand in dealing with armed militant groups such as Hamas.

Abbas has called for an end to armed resistance against Israel. Some of the militant groups have said they would at least temporarily halt attacks against Israelis and have demanded a cease-fire declaration from Israel.

Israeli officials have said only that they will answer “quiet with quiet.” They argue that Abbas’ decision to deploy Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip to prevent attacks is insufficient and have called on Palestinian authorities to arrest militants, seize their weapons and destroy factories where crude rockets are made.

Israel has agreed to pull back its troops gradually from the edges of five West Bank cities and turn over security to Palestinian forces. But that process is not expected to start until after the summit.

Israel has at times retaken the West Bank cities in response to violence, but for the most part operates at checkpoints and roadblocks that ring the cities. It is not clear how many checkpoints, if any, would be removed. The Palestinians say the checkpoints have infringed on their freedom to move and strangled their economy. But Israel maintains they are needed to stop suicide bombers and other attackers from making their way into Israeli cities.