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Israeli Security Cabinet to Convene on US Proposals
Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak will convene his inner-circle security cabinet Wednesday morning and make a final decision on the American proposals for a final peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Barak's foreign press coordinator David Baker said that Israel has not yet fully agreed to the American proposals, which was presented by U.S. President Bill Clinton to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Washington last week.
Baker hinted that Barak plans to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah Bin Hussein in the next few days, probably on Wednesday, to sound out their opinions on these proposals.
Israeli media Tuesday quoted Barak as saying that if the Palestinians say "yes" to the U.S. ideas, it will be very difficult for Israel to refuse to discuss them.
"That would exact of Israel too great an international price if everyone agrees - (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat, Europe - and just we refuse," Barak told Israel television.
Arafat, meanwhile, emphasized Monday that he still have to thoroughly review the suggestions due to "a lot of obstacles," and make a final response after that review.
The U.S. insisted that the deadline for Barak and Arafat's response is Wednesday, although both sides demanded Clinton extend the time limit.
Barak and other Israeli officials had repeatedly refused to reveal the details of the American offers for a long time. But according to Israeli media reports, the most important points of the proposals are:
Israel will hand over 95 percent of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians and five percent will be relinquished by land-exchange;
The Palestinians will get sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods and a disputed shrine, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, while Israel will continue control the Jewish neighborhood and the Jewish holy site of the Western Wall;
Palestinian refugees will be able to return to the Palestinian state-to-be.
Israel will submit a number of reservations about the plan but Israel Justice Minister Yossi Beilin said Monday that all of them are minor.
If the two sides agree to hold further negotiations based on the bridge plan, Barak and Arafat will fly to Washington for separate talks with Clinton at the end of this week.
Then, if progress is made, a three-way summit involving a direct Barak-Arafat meeting will take place in the following week.
Clinton had set January 10, 10 days before he leaves the White House, as the deadline for reaching an agreement under his auspices.
Meanwhile, Israel Radio Tuesday quoted a diplomatic source in Jerusalem as saying that if both sides agree to the US proposals, there would be a declaration of intentions similar to the Oslo accords, which was announced in 1993 to open the Israeli- Palestinian peace process.
The sources added that it would probably take months of negotiations after that before an actual agreement is reached.
In a related development, Israel's Jerusalem Post daily reported Tuesday that Israel is to invest 100 million shekels (about US$24.3 million) to build security fence along the Green line, the borderline between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza before the 1967 Mideast War.
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