-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Low expectations for Sharm summit By Janine Zacharia and Lamia Lahoud JERUSALEM (October 15) - Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat will meet US President Bill Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and other world leaders in Sharm e-Sheikh tomorrow in an effort to end clashes that have raged for more than two weeks, killing scores. The leaders agreed to meet as Israelis and Palestinians yesterday largely took a breather from fighting, with few skirmishes and casualties reported. Barak and Arafat agreed to attend the summit after a weekend of shuttle diplomacy by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and intensive prodding by Clinton. Annan said both leaders had dropped preconditions for the meeting, whose limited goal is to reach a cease-fire agreement and restore some sort of joint Israeli-Palestinian security mechanism. Barak reportedly has low expectations for the summit and only agreed to attend at Clinton's request. "Our main target is to reach an immediate truce," UN special peace envoy Terje Larsen told The Jerusalem Post. PA Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said the Palestinians agreed to attend the summit after Annan assured them that Barak would allow medical supplies and food to enter the Palestinian areas, which have been sealed off by Israeli forces, and would pull Israeli forces back to their original positions. But another senior PA official, who declined to be identified, said that international pressure from all sides from the US, UN, Russia, and the EU led to the breakthrough. PA officials say Arafat, who traveled to Egypt yesterday to consult with Mubarak, was reluctant to attend such a reconciliation meeting with Israel ahead of the first Arab summit in 11 years, scheduled to take place in Cairo this coming Saturday. Arafat hopes there to solidify Arab backing for Palestinian demands of sovereignty over east Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, something he failed to do in a whirlwind tour of Arab capitals following the collapse of the July Camp David summit. Clinton was concerned that wider military confrontations could erupt if the Arab summit preceded a cease-fire agreement. The US president, who has labored intensively throughout his term to strike an historic peace deal, would also like to use the meeting to set a time frame for resuming final-status negotiations, but officials and analysts say the trust necessary for such talks has completely eroded. Pressure on Barak from potential coalition mates like Likud leader Ariel Sharon to reject a new round of talks, and Arafat's desire to maintain some friction with Israel at least until the Arab summit, also make a declaration of a resumption of peace negotiations unlikely. "Our central objectives must now be to stop the violence, to restore calm and safety, to agree on a fact-finding mechanism concerning how this began and how it can be prevented from occurring again, and to find a way back to dialogue and negotiations," Clinton told reporters in Washington yesterday. Clinton, who was burned three times in recent peacemaking summit efforts - at Geneva, Camp David, and Paris - warned that there is no guarantee of success. "We should be under no illusions. The good news is the parties have agreed to meet and the situation appears to be calmer. But the path ahead is difficult. After the terrible events of the last few days, the situation is quite tense. But President Mubarak and I are convinced that we must make every effort to break the cycle of violence." Israeli and US officials warned last night that a new round of violence today or a surprise development could torpedo the summit plans. Clinton called for both sides to "do all in their power to cease hostilities and halt the violence,"in the two days leading up to the summit. Speaking later in Denver, Clinton asked for the "prayers" of the American public as leaders "attempt to try to put things back together" in Sharm e-Sheikh. The most worrisome unknown for the US is whether Arafat will agree to a cease-fire agreement drafted in Paris and endorsed by Israel, which calls for a US-led commission to examine the events of the last two weeks and make recommendations to the UN secretary-general. The body, however, would not be authorized to condemn or initiate proceedings against either side. Palestinian officials say privately that Arafat has dropped his demand for a UN-appointed international commission of inquiry. But Shaath said Arafat agreed to the summit "to end all Israeli hostilities against the Palestinians and form an international investigation committee," without specifying what kind. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told CNN the Palestinians also wanted assurances "that Israel will never repeat what it did with the missiles, and choppers, and tanks." In return, Justice Minister Yossi Beilin said Israel would demand that the PA terminate all incitement and violence and begin implementing signed agreements. "We regard this summit as nothing more than one aimed at a cessation of violence and rebuilding some of the security mechanism," said one Israeli source involved in the negotiations. "Since we've already agreed to the Paris document, we expect Arafat to sign it at Sharm e-Sheikh." Palestinians yesterday rallied in Gaza to protest against Arafat's participation in tomorrow's summit. "We call on President Arafat not to go to this summit, because it is an American plan. The US wants to protect the Israeli criminals," Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said in a television interview, an excerpt of which was broadcast on Channel 1. Annan, Jordan's King Abdullah II, and possibly representatives of Russia, France, and Spain will also be present at the Sharm meeting, according to Arafat adviser Bassam Abu Sharif. Nabil Amr, the PA's minister for parliamentary affairs, said the US and Egypt would likely make some suggestions at the summit regarding final-status negotiations. But Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei said anger among Israelis and Palestinians would prohibit each leader from agreeing to a resumption of negotiations at this stage. "Maybe they will discuss some ways to restart the negotiations later," he said. Regarding next weekend's Arab summit, Palestinian officials dismissed reports that Arafat would use the occasion to declare statehood unilaterally. "Arafat knows how sensitive the situation is and is not looking for such dramatic acts which will escalate the situation," one PA minister said. Nina Gilbert and Margot Dudkevitch add: The Likud favors the Sharm e-Sheikh summit planned for tomorrow, with party leader Sharon saying he "favors halting the bloodshed." However, Sharon noted that negotiations with the Palestinians had "caused the present situation." Likud MK Limor Livnat said she welcomes the summit if it is aimed at halting violence, but not if it involves establishing an inquiry into the violence, pushing back IDF troops, and the continuation of the peace process. Meretz leader Yossi Sarid said he hopes the summit continues rapprochement efforts in order to "get out of this terrible crisis that endangers both peoples and the region." However, Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman called on Barak not to attend as long as violence continues, saying this would be "tantamount to encouraging terror and giving in to violence." The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip condemned Barak's decision to meet with Arafat tomorrow, declaring his participation should be contingent to an immediate halt in the violence by the Palestinians. The council called on Barak not to meet with Arafat until he receives guarantees on the return of Jews to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus and the Shalom Al Yisrael Synagogue in Jericho and the restoration of the two sites. Meanwhile, Nadia Matar of the Women in Green declared that activists plan to demonstrate outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem this morning with calls "to bury Oslo before it buries Israel." *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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