Netanyahu Proposes Accelerating Peace Talks

JERUSALEM â€”  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made an informal offer to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to try to conclude a final peace agreement within six months, bypassing the remaining steps of their interim accords.

But the verbal proposal, conveyed to the Palestinian leader this week by Jordan’s King Hussein, was greeted with suspicion at Arafat’s Gaza City headquarters.

Palestinian officials said they believed that Israel is attempting to press ahead with negotiations to avoid obligations dictated by their existing peace deals, known as the Oslo agreements.

“I think [Netanyahu] is trying to tell us he doesn’t want the Oslo accords anymore,� said Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator.

The proposal came to light Wednesday amid deep mutual distrust and anger between Israel and the Palestinians, one day after Israel broke ground on a controversial new neighborhood in historically Arab East Jerusalem.

Palestinians say the construction of 6,500 homes for Jews cannot help but impede talks on the future status of the Holy City.

Despite warnings of violence, work proceeded peacefully Wednesday.

The Israeli Supreme Court turned down requests by Israeli peace activists and Arab landowners to halt the construction. And demonstrations in two West Bank communities were conducted without incident.

Netanyahu first floated the idea for accelerated talks with the Palestinians in a speech to Israeli lawmakers last fall. But he was roundly criticized by former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who accused him of employing delaying tactics and of being insincere in his approach to the peace negotiations.

In the current proposal, Netanyahu told the Palestinians--through Hussein--that he wants to try to complete “final status� talks on the West Bank and Gaza Strip two years earlier than planned, according to a source in his office.

The offer would involve bypassing implementation of the interim Israeli-Palestinian agreements, including three scheduled troop withdrawals from the West Bank, and moving directly to discussions of the most sensitive issues between them: refugees, Jewish settlements, borders and Jerusalem.

“The idea is that since every step of the way seems to create less confidence and more irritation between us, it might be best to just sit down and try to discuss the final status and see where we get,� an Israeli official said.

But the Palestinians’ quick dismissal of the suggestion underscored the profound distrust that has developed since Netanyahu and his right-wing and religious coalition came to power in June.

The new partners have reached several pacts of their own, including the accord in January to withdraw Israeli troops from the West Bank city of Hebron. But each step has been arduous.

Under a timetable laid out in an addendum to the Hebron agreement, Israel was to have completed the first of three scheduled troop withdrawals from the West Bank by March 7. But the Palestinians, angered by a planned pullout that fell short of expectations, refused to accept the hand-over. The other two withdrawals are to be completed by mid-1998.

Negotiators were also scheduled to resume the final status talks on Monday, but neither side showed up, apparently because of tensions over the construction plans. Those negotiations are scheduled to end in 1999.

Israeli and Palestinian sources said the proposal to accelerate the peace process was conveyed to Arafat soon after Hussein met with Netanyahu on Sunday in Jerusalem. Netanyahu promised that in the event of failure, he would return to the interim negotiations, the Israeli official said.

There were unconfirmed reports that the offer also involved additional incentives from Israel, including a promise to allow construction of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, apparently in exchange for quiet acceptance of the new Jewish neighborhood.

The Israeli official would not confirm details but denied that Arafat had extracted a promise from Netanyahu that the current construction would be the last for Jews in East Jerusalem.

Erekat, who met Tuesday with Israeli Cabinet Secretary Danny Naveh to discuss the offer, said he could find nothing positive in it.

Netanyahu was simply trying to avoid difficult political steps, Erekat said, specifically the hand-over of more chunks of the West Bank to Palestinian control. “I also think he believes he will make people forget� about the bulldozers at work in East Jerusalem, he said.