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Netanyahu, U.S. to push
April 4, 1997
for final peace deal with PLO
Web posted at: 1:50 p.m. EST (1850 GMT)Latest developments:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu told Cabinet members Friday that an emerging U.S. peace initiative is based on his proposal to speed up final-status talks between the Palestinians and Israel, Israel radio said.
Under Netanyahu's plan, a final peace agreement would be settled in six to nine months, well ahead of the current May 1999 deadline for such an agreement.
Friday, the prime minister even offered to meet U.S. and Palestinian leaders face to face for three-way Camp David-style talks, if necessary, to forge the deal.
"As soon as violence against us stops, we can clear up all outstanding questions in six months," Netanyahu said in a German television interview from Israel.
Thirteen days of intensive U.S.-Israeli-Egyptian talks at the U.S. presidential retreat in Camp David near Washington in 1978 paved the way for Israel's 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, its first with an Arab state.
The talks proposed by Netanyahu would deal with the most sensitive issues -- the future of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements, Palestinian refugees and Palestinian demands for statehood.
Netanyahu will travel to Washington Monday to talk with President Clinton about the current Mideast deadlock.
The peace process broke down last month after Israel went ahead with groundbreaking for a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as a future capital. Since then, Islamic militants have staged three suicide bombings.
Report: Hamas members arrested
The Israeli army did not confirm or deny a report in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Friday which said that soldiers had broken up a Hamas military cell near Hebron, arresting nine and seizing explosives and bomb-making materials.
An army spokesman would say only that since the Tel Aviv suicide bombing last week, there had been 42 arrests in the Hebron area.
Meanwhile, clashes in the West Bank showed no sign of abating. Israeli soldiers on Friday subdued more than 400 Arab youths with tear gas and rubber bullets.
The protesters, gathered on the line separating Israeli and Palestinian Hebron, were throwing rocks and, according to some witnesses, petrol bombs at Israeli soldiers. A Palestinian Rapid Reaction Force pushed back the youths and helped disperse the crowd.
Source: U.S. mulls deeper involvement
Sources say the Clinton administration is considering deeper involvement in the peace negotiations, even to the point of sponsoring the talks Netanyahu has offered to hold.
The United States reportedly also plans to ask Netanyahu for gestures to restore the Palestinians' trust. Some Israeli media have said Clinton would ask Netanyahu to freeze settlement construction during the talks.
But on the record, U.S. officials are playing it coy. "I just can't talk about what ideas we may be considering. We want to have some quiet diplomacy the next couple of days," State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said.
Although Palestinian officials say they support continuing peace talks, they are skeptical of Netanyahu's latest offer, suspecting his proposal will be used to get out of Israeli commitments made in interim peace accords, such as pulling back troops in the West Bank by mid-1998.
Netanyahu takes tough stance at home
Netanyahu delivered a hard-line speech Thursday night to members of his Likud Party, saying he would not back down from building in disputed areas of Jerusalem and in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. He also suggested that he might use more military force against Palestinians, should violence persist.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Netanyahu holds ground; Palestinians protest - April 3, 1997
- Israel approves expansion of West Bank settlements - April 2, 1997
- Netanyahu, Arafat trade barbs as Mideast tensions mount - April 2, 1997
- 2 dead, 7 wounded in Gaza explosions - April 1, 1997
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