Low Expectations For Mideast Talks
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators resumed talks Monday at this Red Sea resort, even as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said he did not expect much from the "peace marathon."
In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli army tracker was wounded when a roadside bomb went off. Israel responded by closing the main north-south road, cutting the strip in half.
Despite the blast, Israel eased its blockade of the Palestinian territories in effect during four months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian fighting - and permitted 16,000 Palestinian workers to return to jobs in Israel.
As Israelis and Palestinians launched their "peace marathon" in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba, both sides lowered expectations. Barak set lines he pledged never to cross, and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Israeli stance meant the "negotiations are doomed before they have even started."
"The chances of achieving a far-reaching agreement there are very low, I would even say scant," Barak said. "What will happen there is some contribution to decreasing the level of violence, and some understandings on what the sides agree and disagree upon so that we can continue the talks after the elections."
The delegations led by Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and Palestinian Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qureia met for over two hours Sunday at the Taba Hilton, facing each other across a rectangular table covered with a green cloth.
Israeli negotiators arrived at this Egyptian resort shortly before 9.30 p.m. local time and immediately rushed to their first meeting with the Palestinian representatives, making no statements. Journalists were kept away from a hotel conference room where the session took place.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had proposed these talks last week. On Friday, he telephoned then-President Clinton, reaffirming an offer that was meant to see if a peace accord could be reached before Israel's Feb. 6 elections. The "peace marathon" would involve up to 10 days of intensive negotiaitons.
Barak, who badly trails hawkish challenger Ariel Sharon, needs a deal with Palestinians to boost his electoral chances.
Barak trails in the polls by about 20 percentage points heading into the election for prime minister, and many analysts believe a peace agreement is his only real hope of catching rival Sharon.
"I promise ... to end the occupation and the rule over another people," Barak said on army radio.
Sharon said he did not view the Taba talks as legitimate and said he would only accept a peace accord that is approved by Israel's parliament, where Barak has just minority support, according to spokeswoman Odelia Lazar-Carmon.
Even within Barak's camp, there was criticism of the timing of the negotiations. "I do not think that holding talks two weeks before the elections is proper," said veteran lawmaker Uzi Baram of Barak's Labor Party.
The talks "are good for Isral, and everything that's good for Israel must be done," countered Israeli negotiator Yossi Sarid, head of the dovish Meretz party.
Barak himself said he was holding firm on key issues that led to breakdowns in previous peace talks - sovereignty over Jerusalem's most contested religious site and the fate of some four million Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
"Israel will not accept under any circumstances the right of return of (Palestinian) refugees to Israel," Barak said, rejecting a fundamental Palestinian demand. And he added: "As prime minister I will not sign any document which hands over sovereignty on the Temple Mount to the Palestinians."
The Temple Mount, which the Palestinians call the Haram as-Sharif, is revered by both Jews and Muslims. Israel claims sovereignty over the shrine inside Jerusalem's walled Old City. The Muslims have effective day-to-day control, but are seeking full sovereignty.
Also, the Israeli government said it will insist that 80 percent of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip be allowed to remain under Israeli sovereignty. That would cover about 160,000 of the nearly 200,000 settlers currently in those areas.
Erekat said those Israeli positions offered no real prospect for progress, let alone a deal.
Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath was not quite so pessimistic about the talks, but he stressed that the Palestinians would not feel pressured by Israel's looming election.
"We are going to discuss all issues with the hope of reaching an agreement," Shaath said. Still, he added, "we are not going to make an agreement just because time is running out."
Neither Barak nor Palestinian leader Arafat was expected in Egypt during the initial days of the negotiations.