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Clinton envoy makes one last try at Middle East peace agreementWASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross will leave for the region on Tuesday in an 11th hour attempt to reconcile differences between the Israelis and Palestinians, a senior U.S. administration official tells CNN. His departure comes in the final few days of the Clinton administration and in the wake of a protest against U.S. President Bill Clinton's peace proposals by tens of thousands of Jews who massed at the walls of Jerusalem's disputed Old City on Monday night But despite publicly voiced reservations about the latest proposals made by both parties, the Clinton administration says it is still intent on trying to forge a final framework agreement.
"We have not given up," said one senior administration official. "We're at the point now where we have a chance to see if there's a way to reconcile interpretations of the (president's) parameters." Time running outBut this official conceded that there isn't much time to do so. "It's January 8th," he said. "He (Dennis Ross) can either help them reach agreement or take it as far as he can" for the Bush administration. This official said that despite recent reservations voiced by both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat about Clinton's "parameters," the United States has reason to believe the Israeli prime minister is "still prepared to go for an agreement." On the other hand, this official explained, the Palestinians have historically been unable to "respond quickly" in negotiations. For that and other reasons, the Clinton administration is less certain Arafat will agree to compromise anytime soon. U.S. officials and Arab diplomats tell CNN that in general the Arab world has been extremely supportive of Clinton's peace plan. Still, one U.S. official said Arafat "has taken his time" responding. "That's because he's someone who makes his judgments based on what's good for the Palestinians and on (what's good for) himself," said this official. Current proposal leaves with ClintonOfficials point out that although the parties are closer than they've ever been to reaching a final agreement, if no agreement is reached by January 20th the proposed deal leaves with Clinton. Officials say Ross plans to meet with both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders during several days of talks. Monday's demonstration specifically rallied against a Clinton administration proposal that Israel allow Palestinians sovereignty over a site in the Old City that is holy to both Muslims and Jews. The site is known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Israeli TV estimated the crowd at 100,000, while organizers claimed that 400,000 had attended the protest. It was impossible to independently verify the figures. Painful compromisesBarak repeated on Saturday his strong opposition to giving Palestinians sovereignty over the site. In exchange for the Israeli compromise, the Clinton proposal asks the Palestinian Authority to abandon its claim to the so-called right of return. The right of return would allow Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes in Israel they were forced to abandon when the Jewish state was founded in 1948. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East reports that by last June, more than 3.7 million Palestinians were registered with the agency in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. Shrine caretaker: Rally 'provocative'The caretaker of the Islamic shrine called the rally "provocative." Muslim Waqf Adnan Husseini said he would hold police responsible for safeguarding the shrine and the Old City's Arab population. The huge crowd of demonstrators sang and danced, some waving Israeli flags, others carrying signs, as performers played music that filled the air outside Jaffa Gate, or Bab al-Khalil, the main western entrance to the walled city. Monday's demonstration was called by the One Jerusalem group of Natan Sharansky, head of an immigrants' party that pulled out of Barak's government in protest of peace efforts. Organizers: Protest not politicalRally organizers insisted that the event was not political, pointing out that no members of the Israeli parliament and no politicians other than the mayor of Jerusalem would deliver speeches.
But participants did carry signs denouncing Arafat and Barak, who faces a re-election challenge from hard-line Likud leader Ariel Sharon. Barak supporters have said the gathering is, in effect, an election rally by right-wingers who support Sharon. Israeli-Palestinian fighting has raged almost daily since September 28, after Sharon visited the disputed shrine. Since then, violence has claimed the lives of 329 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and 45 Israeli Jews and 13 Israeli Arabs, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Palestinians blamed Sharon for touching off the violence, while Sharon said Palestinians were using his visit to the shrine as an excuse for the three-month wave of fighting. Palestinians 'wait and see'Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Monday he was waiting to meet with the U.S. envoy before declaring victory or failure for Clinton's peacemaking efforts. "There were real gaps between us and the president's ideas concerning the issue of refugees, concerning the issue of borders, concerning the issue of Jerusalem and the end of conflict," Erakat told CNN. "President Clinton said he will give the same chance to the Israelis to pose their reservations and qualifications and then he will get in touch with us ... We will wait and see what Mr. Ross carries with him before we jump to conclusions." CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel, CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Mike Hanna, CNN Correspondent Matthew Chance, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Clinton to send special envoy back to Mideast RELATED SITES: Clinton's Remarks at Israel Policy Forum Gala, New York | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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