World

Mideast Talks Survive Bombs

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 7, 1999 / 8:56 AM EST / CBS

A day after a bombing in an Israeli beach town wounded more than 30 people, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators finally began to tackle the thorniest issues of a final peace deal Monday.

After more than three years of false starts and delays, the two sides faced off for the first time for talks that will seek common ground on issues such as the status of Jerusalem, the fate of settlements, the return of Palestinian refugees and whether the West Bank and Gaza will become a state.

After a 75-minute meeting at a West Bank hotel, both sides said they were confident they would meet their ambitious timetable -- a framework agreement by February and a final accord ironing out their remaining land and policy disputes by September.

The talks in the West Bank town of Ramallah were overshadowed by a pipe bomb attack in the Israeli resort of Netanya that injured 33 people.

Israeli police suspect Muslim militants may have been behind the attack, but they suspect the bombs were planted by amateurs from local villages inside Israel rather than professional bombmakers from the ranks of Hamas or Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and Gaza.

But Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat blamed the blasts on a war between Israeli mobsters.

Â"It has emerged that this involved certain Israelis, or people from other nationalities, and that it was a conflict between Israeli mafias,Â" he told reporters after meeting French President Jacques Chirac.

The "other nationalities" were an apparent reference to organized criminals from the former Soviet Union, who are widely seen as a dominant force in IsraelÂ's criminal underground.

Despite the attack, Monday's negotiations were held in a businesslike atmosphere. Six negotiators from each side took seats along a rectangular table.

The chief negotiators, Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo and Israeli diplomat Oded Eran, repeatedly shook hands at the request of photographers. They then presented the well-known opening positions that have remained unchanged since first contacts between the sides began in 1993.

The Palestinians insisted on an Israeli withdrawal from the heavily Palestinian lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Those are the areas they want to unite as an independent Palestinian state.

Abed Rabbo said the Palestinians have the right to self-determination and that millions of Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return or be given compensation. He also said Jewish settlement-building in the disputed lands was the main obstacle to a peace treaty and must be halted immediately.

Eran said Israel would never agree to give up part of Jerusalem or withdraw to the 1967 Mideast border. He insisted that a majority of the 200,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza remain under Israeli sovereignty.

Despite the tough rhetoric, both sides showed good will. Abed Rabbo, know for scathing verbal attacks on Israel, said the opening of the negotiations was a historic moment.

Â"We started with a very open and frank atmosphere, without any barriers, and with this atmosphere, I believe we will be able to build the agreement we all seek,Â" he said in a joint news conference with Eran.

The Israeli negotiator also appeared upbeat, saying he felt it was possible to reach a framework agreement in the time allotted.

Â"It's a long road we have to cover in a very short time, but in joint effort we can make it,Â" Eran said.

After the opening statements, negotiators briefly discussed procedure. They agreed to meet twice or three times a week, and set the next session for Thursday.

So-called final status talks began in May 1996 under the outgoing government of Israel's then-prime minister, Shimon Peres. His hard-line successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, got entangled with the Palestinians on interim issues and held only one round of talks.

Under Barak, negotiations reopened with a brief ceremony on Sept. 13. Monday marked the first round of serious negotiations.