Presidential Primer on Mideast?

With time running out and tough issues unresolved, President Clinton may be ready to shift his goal in the Middle East from a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians to a declaration to guide the incoming Bush administration.

A senior Israeli negotiator, Gilead Sher, and a White House spokesman, P.J. Crowley, gave strong hints of a new U.S. direction after Sher met with Mr. Clinton for a half-hour Friday night.

Asked in the White House driveway if there was still time for a peace pact, Sher replied: "We have long odds for that. But we can achieve something to be determined by the president."

He referred to an American declaration that would try to set a point of departure for where the two sides can go in the future, said an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. and Israeli negotiators have begun considering the content of a declaration. It is likely to be a generalized statement and include an account of the progress Israel and the Palestinians made with the mediation of the Clinton administration.

Then it would be up to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to decide whether to sign it.

Mr. Clinton's drive for a Middle East peace accord inched ahead Friday with Israel's formal approval of his outline for negotiating a settlement with the Palestinians.

But the approval was laced with reservations, which were detailed in a six-page document delivered by Sher on Friday night.

Crowley, the national security spokesman at the White House, said Mr. Clinton would ponder what he has heard from Israel and the Palestinians and decide on his next move in a day or two. "Sunday or Monday he will be in a position to say what happens next," Crowley said.

The president intends to celebrate the election of his wife, Hillary, to the Senate at New York's Madison Square Garden on Sunday and make a speech Sunday night to the Israel Policy Forum, a research group.

Describing the issues on the table as very difficult, Crowley seemed to acknowledge that the president may not be able to attain his No. 1 foreign policy goal: a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians.

"Our intent over the next two weeks is to move this process as far as we can," Crowley said. But, he added, "we need to know there is a basis to move forward."

With only two weeks left in his presidency, Mr. Clinton now has the conditional acceptance of both sides to his proposals, but bridging the differences presents a formidable challenge.

Arafat, for instance, is challenging Mr. Clinton's omission of the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel. Arafat is making the claim in behalf of 3.5 million to 5 million Palestinians who left the country at its founding as a Jewish state in 1948, and their descendants.

Barak, trailing badly in the polls in his bid for re-election Feb. 6, wants to limit the control over parts of East Jerusalem that he alreadhas offered the Palestinians.

He is putting even greater emphasis on an end to violence that has prompted his critics to question the wisdom of making major concessions to Arafat amid a Palestinian uprising.

As a result, Mr. Clinton on Tuesday extracted pledges by the Palestinian leader to curb attacks on Israelis and to resume cooperation with Israel in countering terrorism.

CIA Director George Tenet was flying Saturday night to Cairo, Egypt, for talks with Israeli and Palestinian security experts.

Sher, the Israeli negotiator, told reporters the Palestinians had an obligation to curb violence. Referring to a recent decline, he said, "We will have to see if the trend continues."