World

Israel Hedges On Peace Deal

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 13, 1998 / 10:26 AM EDT / CBS

Israel said on Tuesday there was "no chance at this stage" of signing a new peace deal with the Palestinians at this week's U.S. summit after suspected Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli.

"Without fulfillment of all Palestinian security commitments there will not be an agreement and in light of this gloomy reality there is no chance at this stage of signing an agreement," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

The statement was issued a few hours after an Israeli man was shot dead and a second seriously wounded in an attack in a Jerusalem forest near the West Bank.

Police blamed terrorists for the attack on the two men, who were swimming in a forest spring. Police later said Jews had stoned several cars driven by Arabs in the area of the attack.

Netanyahu's office said that if it turned out, as police suspected, that the killers had fled to a Palestinian-ruled area, "it is incumbent upon the Palestinian Authority to act immediately to capture them."

The United States wants the summit, which starts on Thursday, to conclude a new interim peace deal under which Israel would withdraw from a further 13 percent of the West Bank in exchange for measurable Palestinian steps to crack down on anti-Israeli violence.

"Mr. Netanyahu stresses that in the Wye Plantation discussions he will stand firm on Israel's security demands of the Palestinians," the statement said.

After a marathon debate earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu was given the go-ahead by his cabinet to negotiate the land-for-security deal with the Palestinians at the summit at the Wye Plantation retreat in Maryland, outside Washington.

There was no immediate comment on the Israeli statement from the Palestinians or Washington. Jewish settler leaders, who backed Netanyahu's election in 1996 and oppose land transfers, said the statement "did not reassure" them.

In Gaza earlier, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said there was still "a lot to be solved" before a deal could be sealed at the summit.

His spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said the coming week could make or break the peace process after 19 months of deadlock.

"It could be the end of the road. Either we will have a breakthrough and progress in the peace process or we will reach the dangerous blocked road which will reflect its negative effects on the entire region," Abu Rdainah said.

At the Israeli cabinet session, leading hawk Ariel Sharon, whose appointment as foreign minister was announced on Friday, officially took up the post. He will be part of the Israeli negotiating team at the summit.

About 40 Jewish settlers from the divided West Bank town of Hebron protested in a park near the Prime Minister's office against a deal.

At the demonstration, National Religious Party legislator and settler leader Hanan Porat said an agreement in Washington could spell the end of Netanahu's coalition government.

"I told him very clearly, if he goes to Washington and makes a deal he won't have a government," Porat told Reuters.

Netanyahu has a narrow 61-59 majority in parliament, but opposition left-wing legislators have indicated they would back him if rightists tried to topple the government over a peace accord.

Arafat's Palestinian Authority currently has partial control over 27 percent of West Bank land, and a proposed deal would leave Palestinians in partial control of 40 percent. The proposed deal stipulates that a tract measuring 3 percent of the West Bank would be designated a protected "nature preserve" after Israel withdraws.