ISSUE 2033 Monday 18 December 2000
Cheney shatters Clinton push for peace in Israel
By Patrick Bishop in Jerusalem
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=002155866705905&rtmo=lvlHFzzt&atmo=rv0sMw0s&
pg=/et/00/12/18/wmid18.html
Israeli and Palestinian delegations are expected to go to Washington this
week to try to find common ground that could pave the way for a peace summit.
Both sides are due to hold separate talks with American officials in the
first serious attempt to resume negotations, which have been in abeyance
since the Palestinian uprising erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the
end of September.The already slim chances of success were reduced further
yesterday when Vice-President-elect Dick Cheney voiced the incoming
administration's "concerns that the way the Clinton administration operated
in the [last] year or so in the Middle East has made it more difficult to
reach a settlement". He singled out the decision to put the future of
Jerusalem, !
one of the most intractable of the many issues under negotiation,
at the centre of the failed summit at Camp David last July. He made it clear
that the Bush presidency had its own ideas about how to "regenerate" the
peace process, which he said had now broken down. On the face of it, the
parties have an interest in reaching agreements before President Clinton
steps down on January 20. Ehud Barak was eager to strike a deal that would
allow him to show substantial progress in building peace with the
Palestinians in advance of an election for prime minister in early February
which on current form he is expected to lose.Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian
leader, had the choice of doing business with Mr Barak or waiting until after
the poll, which in the absence of a peace breakthrough seems certain to
result in a hardliner at!
the Israeli helm. Yesterday he said he was willing
to meet Mr Barak to talk peace. Mr Clinton was anxious to see some results
from a process which had absorbed much of his energy since he decided to try
to forge a solid Middle East settlement as his lasting presidential legacy.
That hope would now seem to be unrealistic following Mr Cheney's
intervention.Despite the peace rumblings blood continued to flow yesterday
with Israeli soldiers shooting dead Iyad Daoud, 27, and Ahmed Al-Kassas, 38,
in the Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt. Palestinians said they had been
going to the rescue of another man who had been shot and wounded. The army
said they had returned fire after coming under attack.A leader of Mr Arafat's
Fatah group was killed in a mysterious explosion at the Kalandiya refugee
camp near Jerusalem. Fatah officials said Sami Mala'b eh, 28, was the latest
victim of an Israeli assassination campaign against activists. T!
he army had
no official comment about the incident.
