Mideast Muddle Awaits Clinton
Keeping a promise to Israel and the United States, a group of senior Palestinians led by Yasser Arafat voted overwhelmingly Thursday to declare clauses of the PLO charter calling for Israel's destruction null and void.
The vote was an interim step ahead of Monday's session of the Palestine National Council, which is to reaffirm the move in the presence of President Clinton.
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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he had ordered an Israeli crackdown on Palestinian unrest ahead of Mr. Clinton's visit, aimed at fostering peace.
"Israel's security requires a firm hand," he told Israel Radio. This week, two Palestinians have been killed and more than 150 people injured in violence that has engulfed the West Bank, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.
"Our duty is to activate the Israeli army and security elements against this trouble in the firmest way possible," Netanyahu said. "That's an order I asked be passed to the field."
Palestinians have clashed with troops in protest at Israel's refusal to free Palestinian security prisoners under the October peace deal.
Israel freed 250 prisoners last month, many of them common criminals. Netanyahu said the Palestinian leadership knew he had vowed not to free murderers with "blood on their hands."
In a further sign of tension before President Clinton's arrival late on Saturday, Netanyahu demanded an apology for comments by U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley which he said were an attempt to interfere in Israeli democracy.
"Generally, governments end up reflecting the views of the people. It takes elections to do that," Daley said in Washington on Wednesday. "Hopefully, the people of Israel will make their voices heard a little louder, in their support of peace."
At the end of the radio interview, Netanyahu said: "I don't know whether he said the things -- that he hinted at or called for changes in the Israeli government. If he said these things, they're grave remarks which are unacceptable to us."
"If these things were indeed said, I expect an apology and unequivocal corection of the comments."
Netanyahu's government is threatened with collapse from hardliners in his coalition opposed to ceding land to Palestinians.
In posters lining some of Jerusalem's streets, Israeli right-wingers have expressed concerns that President Clinton's visit will mean more pressure to withdraw from parts of the West Bank.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, is also fighting off a parliamentary bid to call new elections.
Last week, Netanyahu suspended the U.S.-brokered peace accord, accusing the Palestinians of not keeping their part of the deal, and Israel's Labor party withdrew a promise to prop up the government.
Israeli forces were on alert in case of more violence on Thursday after a Palestinian teenager was shot dead and more than 80 people were hurt in West Bank clashes on Wednesday during a general strike to mark the 11th anniversary of the start of the Palestinian intifada.
Netanyahu has demanded the Palestinian Authority end anti-Israeli violence and said he was unlikely to implement a promised West Bank pullback next week.
The Israeli prime minister said Thursday he would not cave in to pressure to reverse his decision on the pullback.
"It is Israel which determines issues linked to its future," Netanyahu said when asked whether he was willing to engage in a showdown with President Clinton over whether the Palestinians have fulfilled their obligations under the Wye River land-for-security agreement.
Netanyahu has accused Arafat of organizing the widespread stone-throwing protests that have swept the West Bank in recent days and of inciting against Israel over prisoner releases.
The Palestinians have said Netanyahu has broken a promise to release Palestinians jailed for anti-Israeli activity, but the Israeli leader said he never made such a commitment. Most of the 250 Palestinian prisoners freed so far have been criminals.
The Israeli leader has also demanded that Arafat publicly recant a pledge to declare statehood next May, and that the Palestine National Council vote to annul anti-Israel clauses of their charter.
Netanyahu on Thursday said there was no firm plan for him to hold a three-way summit late on Monday with Mr. Clinton and Arafat.
Israel carried out the first stage of the redeployment in late November in keeping with the Wye River peace accord signed in October, which provides for a pullback from 13 percent of the West Bank in three phases over three months.
©1998 CBS Worldwide Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Reuters contributed to this report. Photos courtesy of the Associated Press