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NEWS
Tenet Talks Off to Slow Start
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Palestinian and Israeli security officials met with CIA Director George Tenet at Jerusalem's King David Hotel Monday night to discuss their responses to his cease-fire proposal, but the gaps between the sides remain wide. Tenet met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Israeli security officials Monday afternoon.

The Palestinians seem to be serious about wanting to reach a cease-fire, CIA chief George Tenet and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East William Burns told Israeli officials.

Israel's assessment is that the Palestinian Authority continues to see violence as a strategic tool for achieving its goals, and therefore views any cease-fire as strictly temporary.

According to IDF Intelligence, the PA areas are still being used as terror bases, and the PA is not doing much to prevent or foil attacks, although they are said to have prevented some attacks immediately following the night club explosion in Tel Aviv.

PA Chairman Yasser Arafat also carried out a number of administrative detentions for "preventative" purposes, he said. However, the IDF emphasized that Arafat's moves were only "superficial," and he is not seriously acting against terror.

Arafat's actions after the Tel Aviv attack show that he is in control of the territories, according to an IDF officer. After the Tel Aviv attack, as a result of heavy pressure, Arafat also did things that he previously could not do, such as calling for a cease-fire in Arabic, he noted.

He said Arafat wants to restart the peace process, but at the same time continue terror. Arafat also wants to establish a basis for the internationalization of the conflict and grounds for the right of return of Palestinian refugees, he said.

Arafat is "very bothered" by the national unity government, and the united front it is presenting internationally, he said. European states are very interested in bringing calm to the region, and if there is no unity in Israel and opposition to Arafat, they are likely to put pressure on Israel on the issue of the Palestinian refugees.

He also warned of the expanding involvement of Iran in the region, especially in south Lebanon. The strategic aim of Iran is to destroy Israel.

Bassam Abu Sharif, an adviser to Arafat, said the main problem is that the American proposal does not treat the cease-fire as part of the Mitchell report. The Palestinians demand that it be part of a package deal. He said all the Palestinian reservations were related to amendments to the original Mitchell report.

Israel has accepted Tenet's plan, but wants it to include an end to all violence, not just shootings from Area A.

According to the plan, presented to the sides at the first round of security talks under Tenet's chairmanship on Friday, the Palestinians are to arrest Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, put an end to incitement, and stop assisting terror attacks against settlements.

The PA is also called upon to collect and destroy mortars and missiles under its control, prevent individuals and groups from Area A from attacking Israel, and not give refuge to those who do carry out such attacks.

Israel is called upon to withdraw to positions it held before the outbreak of the violence, not to attack Palestinian targets, and to prevent revenge attacks on Palestinians.

The plan also calls on Israel and the PA to renew regularly scheduled security talks, resume joint patrols, and reconstruct the liaison units set up under the Oslo Accords.

The most problematic point for the Palestinians is the demand that the PA rearrest Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists ."We are not the Israelis' policemen to arrest our own people," Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei said, but added that once there is an agreement, the PA would work hard to keep it.

In fact, those who were freed were guilty of crimes including murder and according to the original Oslo agreements they must be turned over to Israel. The PA has argued that if it punishes terrorists it need not hand them over to Israel, but this argument breaks down if they release the terrorists.

Israel's main concern with the proposal is the lack of an effective supervisory mechanism to ensure that the Palestinians fulfill their commitments under the deal, which include the arrest of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists and the confiscation of illegal weapons. At the same time, security officials said, Israel wants to ensure that any supervisory mechanism does not become a means of introducing international observers into the territories "through the back door."

Meanwhile, Israeli officials expressed reservations about United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's planned visit to the region next week. Israel fears that Annan is trying to organize a reprise of last October's Sharm al-Sheikh summit, which included representatives not only from Israel, the PA and the U.S., but also from Egypt, Jordan, the European Union and the UN.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is strongly opposed to this idea, which he sees as a Palestinian attempt to circumvent Israel's insistence that a cease-fire must precede diplomatic negotiations.

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who met with Sha'ath in Luxembourg Monday, also stressed that a cease-fire must precede negotiations.

The weekly Israel Foreign Ministry survey of the world press concluded that Israel's image abroad has improved as a result of the Dolphinarium bombing and the subsequent restraint, and the spotlight has been turned onto Palestinian violence, along with questions about the ability or willingness of the PA to implement a cease-fire.

According to this survey, there is now a "complete lack of patience" for Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror, and in world public opinion Arafat is on the defensive. In the US press, Arafat is being unequivocally blamed for the violence.

Nevertheless, Palestinian attempts to draw comparisons between Islamic Jihad and Hamas and the settlers -- such as demands that Israel arrest pro-Kach activists in exchange for an arrest of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists -- is falling on fertile ground abroad.

 

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