Sharon, Abbas Pledge End to Conflict as Hopes Soar

Raising hopes for a new era of Mideast peacemaking, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas shook hands warmly at a summit Tuesday and pledged to halt all attacks after four years of suicide bombings, assassinations and military assaults.

As the flags of the two warring peoples fluttered side by side in the crisp winds of this Red Sea resort, the leaders made their proclamations from a broad, round table where they sat with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. Although the Palestinian militant group Hamas warned that it wasn’t bound by any cease-fire, the mood here was optimistic.

“We agreed that all Palestinians will stop all acts of violence against all Israelis everywhere,” Sharon said. “At the same time, Israel will cease all its military activity against all Palestinians anywhere.”

Across the table, Abbas echoed the pledge. “We jointly agreed to cease all acts of violence against Palestinians and Israelis anywhere,” he said. “We want to replace the language of bullets and bombs with the language of dialogue.”

After four years of bloodshed and the deaths of more than 4,000 people, mostly Palestinians, Tuesday’s agreement marked a level of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation not seen since the collapse of an earlier negotiation process begun by the 1993 Oslo accords, the last major push for peace.

Despite the sweeping pledges, the summit left untouched the fundamental issues that have been at the heart of the conflict for decades, such as the borders of a future Palestinian state, control of Jerusalem and whether Palestinian refugees have the right to move back to Israel.

Sharon and Abbas acknowledged that the tentative diplomacy could easily collapse into violence, as it has before. Each leader will have to overcome the influence of hard-liners at home who violently oppose making concessions.

“This is a very fragile opportunity that the extremists will want to exploit,” Sharon warned. “They want to close the window of opportunity for us and allow our two peoples to drown in their blood.”

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan praised the agreement, commending the “strong leadership” of Abbas and Sharon. He said the United States would “continue doing its part” to achieve “the president’s two-state vision of Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace.”

The delicacy of the situation was underscored by Sharon and Abbas’ decision to issue parallel statements declaring an end to hostilities rather than sign a cease-fire pact that could require difficult bargaining.

In return for the Palestinian announcement that their 4 1/2 -year uprising was over, Israel vowed to halt military actions -- provided that Palestinian officials followed through on promises to crack down on militants by rounding them up and dismantling their weapons workshops. Israel also pledged to release about 900 Palestinian prisoners and was preparing to withdraw military forces from five West Bank towns in the next few weeks.

The Palestinians, meanwhile, pledged to enforce a fractious cease-fire. A de facto cease-fire went into effect about two weeks ago, when militants agreed to give Abbas room to negotiate. But Hamas warned Tuesday that it was not bound by Abbas’ pledge, and it was unclear if the militia would resume attacks.

“The announcement ... of a cease-fire expresses the position only of the Palestinian Authority,” Mushir Masri of Hamas told Reuters news agency.

Some observers warned that the absence of a formal truce signed by Sharon and Abbas could make it easier for either side to accuse the other of violations and step back from the peace process.

“When there is no signed security agreement, and when the sides make do with statements, there is a chance that both sides will very quickly find themselves in misunderstandings and malfunctions,” military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot.

During their talks, Sharon invited Abbas to visit his Sycamore Ranch in southern Israel, and the Palestinian Authority president accepted. The leaders were also considering meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The most serious drive for peace between Israelis and Palestinians occurred after the signing of the Oslo accords, and much of the discussion at Tuesday’s summit harked back to that era.

That pact was sealed with an iconic handshake between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn as President Clinton looked on. The accords called for sacrifice on each side in the hope of reaching a long-elusive peace. But the process eventually collapsed without delivering a state to the Palestinians or security to the Israelis.

Under the terms of Oslo, the Palestinians agreed to put a stop to a bloody uprising and recognized Israel’s right to exist. In exchange, a provisional Palestinian government and security services were created, Israel freed Palestinian prisoners, and much of the Gaza Strip and West Bank were turned over to Palestinian control.

But extremists on both sides sought to undermine the process. Rabin was assassinated in November 1995 by an ultraconservative Jewish law student who considered his negotiating to give up Israeli settlements a betrayal of the Jewish people. On the Palestinian side, militants committed to Israel’s destruction unleashed suicide bombings to derail peace talks.

In 2000, Sharon -- then the opposition leader -- paid a controversial visit to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a site sacred to both Jews and Muslims that lies at the center of the debate over control of the ancient city. Sharon at the time was attempting to assert Israeli claims to all of Jerusalem; Palestinians have sought East Jerusalem as their future capital.

That visit unleashed a wave of violence, and the blood has flowed since. Last-ditch talks in 2000, at the end of Clinton’s term, failed to produce a deal.

A new framework for negotiations known as the “road map” -- sponsored by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- was unveiled in 2003. It mandates a three-step process leading to a “final and comprehensive settlement” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and envisions the creation of “an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel.”

Sharon and Abbas met in Jordan shortly after the road map was introduced in an attempt to restart the peace process. Abbas was the Palestinian Authority prime minister at the time. Although the meeting produced ambitious rhetoric and pledges of peace, bloodshed soon followed.

Palestinians hope that the steps announced Tuesday will lead to a resumption of talks based on the road map, although Israel is eager to deal first with security issues.

“This is a summit of beginnings,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. “The start of a series of summits.”

Tuesday’s summit was hosted by Egypt’s Mubarak. Although Jordan’s king attended, when the four leaders gathered before the cameras to deliver their carefully worded speeches, he stayed silent. Mubarak spoke on behalf of both of them.

Israel’s relations with Egypt and Jordan have cooled since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising. In a sign of warming ties, however, both nations promised to send their ambassadors back to Tel Aviv for the first time since the start of the uprising.

Since Arafat’s death in November, Egypt has redoubled efforts to promote peace in the region. The country’s negotiators have played a lead role in trying to get Palestinian militant groups to put down their weapons, and Mubarak has been pushing for stronger ties between Arab governments and Israel, despite the deep opposition of many ordinary Arabs.

Egypt and Israel recently agreed to create a free-trade zone on the border. In a striking rhetorical shift, Mubarak also referred to Sharon as a “man of peace” and toured Arab states to urge them to begin talks with Israel.

“It is a humbling challenge. There are deeply rooted pains, but our hopes are deeper,” Mubarak said Tuesday. “It’s a long and difficult path, but we’ve started today.”

In Israel and the Palestinian territories, Tuesday’s summit was greeted on the streets with excitement and skepticism.

“I want to hear all those left-wingers that said there is no political future with Sharon. I want them to apologize. We are going to have peace, we are,” said Oren Choen, a 23-year-old Israeli who was walking in Tel Aviv with his girlfriend, Civan Gilad, whom he met while they were in the army. “Our children will live in peace. Our children will never have to go to the army. It’s a great day today -- big, big, hopes.”

But other reactions were tempered by memories of broken cease-fires and abandoned commitments.

“I’m not certain of the effectiveness of this summit based on the previous experience in the peace process,” said Imad Melhem, a 35-year-old Palestinian social worker in Bethlehem. “I just want to cling to the hope of peace -- at least in my heart.”

Stack reported from Sharm el Sheik and Ellingwood from Jerusalem. Special correspondents Tami Zer in Tel Aviv and Samir Zedan in Bethlehem contributed to this report.