Israel Balks At West Bank Deal

Only days before a peace summit in Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet is reportedly balking at a U.S.-authored plan for an Israeli pullback in the West Bank.

The ministers are poised to oppose an American initiative for Israeli troops to withdraw from 13 percent of the West Bank, an Israeli newspaper reported Sunday.

Such a declaration just before talks in Washington between Netanyahu, President Clinton, and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat could dampen hopes for breaking a 19-month-old Israeli-Palestinian deadlock.

Netanyahu's Cabinet, which is dominated by hard-liners who oppose land-for-peace deals with the Palestinians, is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the deal-a day before the prime minister leaves for Washington.

The Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported that the Cabinet will oppose a withdrawal now from 13 percent of the West Bank, and a proposed future withdrawal from an additional one percent.

In addition, the Cabinet will inform Netanyahu that they will only authorize implementing any deal after the Palestinians fulfill a series of demands, including disarming militants and annulling sections of the PLO charter, the report said.

The Prime Minister has come under heavy pressure from far-right members of his coalition government who have threatened to topple him if he goes ahead with another pullback.

In recent days, Netanyahu has been taking steps seen as meant to placate hard-liners in his camp. On Friday, he named hawkish former general Ariel Sharon as his foreign minister.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister attended the funeral for a 19-year-old Israeli soldier stabbed to death by a Palestinian just outside a West Bank settlement.

There, he denounced Palestinian radio and television for broadcasting "words of hate and incitement and encouragement for murderous acts."

Both Israeli and Palestinian security forces said the killer of 19-year-old Cpl. Michal Adato, 19, was mentally unstable and acted alone.

In another nod to the right wing, Netanyahu on Sunday personally greeted members of a Zionist Christian group that came to his office and offered prayers he would steadfastly reject a peace accord with the Palestinians.

Afterward, the group went to Har Homa, the site of a controversial planned Jewish neighborhood in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, to offer more prayers for a halt to the peace process. Talks broke down in March 1997 after the groundbreaking at Har Homa.