Israeli, Palestinian Leaders Face Off on Peace

Israeli and Palestinian leaders drew lines in the sand over peace terms Friday, highlighting obstacles to a bid by President Clinton to secure a Middle East settlement before he leaves office.

A Palestinian policeman was killed in a battle involving Israeli tank fire near the Israel-Gaza border earlier in the day, another blow to U.S. efforts to mediate a peace accord before Clinton steps down on January 20.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (news - web sites) said he would not sign a peace deal granting Palestinian sovereignty over a Jerusalem holy site or the right to return of Palestinian refugees -- both key Palestinian demands for reaching a final peace deal.

"The government under my authority will not accept any agreement in any form that will recognize...the right of return. Period...I do not intend to sign any document that will transfer sovereignty over the Temple Mount to Palestinians,'' Barak said in an interview on Channel Two television.

Meanwhile, a top adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said Palestinians would not sign a peace deal with Israel that failed to give them sovereignty over all of Arab East Jerusalem or allow the return of refugees.

"We will not sign on any agreement that does not give Palestinians full sovereignty over Jerusalem, al-Haram al-Sharif and all other Islamic and Christian holy sites,'' Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters.

'Just Solution' On Refugees

"We are demanding a just solution to the issue of refugees according to (U.N. resolution) 194,'' he said, referring to a resolution that mandates the return of the refugees.

A Clinton proposal last week to kickstart stalled negotiations was reported to give the Palestinians sovereignty over the Jerusalem shrine, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Arabs as al-Haram al-Sharif.

Palestinians in return would accept a restriction on the right of refugees to return to the homes which they left, or from which they were forced to flee, in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The Palestinians had said more clarifications were needed

Palestinians said the policeman was killed by an Israeli tank shell fired in a gun battle that broke out after Israeli soldiers bulldozed trees near a Palestinian military post.

The army says it does this to prevent gunmen from using the foliage for cover.

The Israeli army said it fired one tank shell after its soldiers came under what it called massive gunfire from Palestinian gunmen.

During the battle, one of the fiercest in more than a week, Palestinian police and snipers exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers near the Erez crossing on the Israel-Gaza border, according to witnesses.

The death brought the toll to at least 346 people killed in a three-month-old Palestinian Intifada (uprising) that erupted in the vacuum of deadlocked peace talks. More than 300 of the dead are Palestinians and Israeli Arabs while 41 Israelis have also died.

Four Palestinians were also wounded in a clash at a regular flashpoint north of the West Bank town of Ramallah. The Israeli army said Palestinian gunmen fired at two army jeeps and soldiers returned fire.

The violence further undercut a U.S. effort to forge a final agreement, a day after two Israelis were killed in a Palestinian bomb attack on the Israel-Gaza border and 14 people were wounded by a pipe bomb blast on a Tel Aviv bus.

A Palestinian cabinet minister said earlier that wide differences remained on key issues of Clinton's proposed framework for a final peace deal.

"They need to be clarified and developed in order to really go forward with them as the basis for future negotiations and we are in the process of trying very positively to do that,'' the minister, Nabil Shaath, told Reuters.

Most Israelis Oppose Clinton Blueprint

Opinion polls showed a majority of Israelis opposed a peace accord based on Clinton's blueprint and that Barak's popularity had sunk to a new low ahead of Israel's February 6 election.

Clinton said at the White House Thursday that the bomb attacks were a sign militants would try to sabotage his efforts to mediate an end to decades of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed before he leave office.

Clinton said the sides were closer than ever to an agreement and he was awaiting a formal Palestinian response to his proposals on crucial issues such as the fate of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements and borders.

Israel conditionally accepted Clinton's blueprint for peace after a late-night security cabinet meeting Wednesday. The Palestinians sent Clinton a letter that raised strong reservations over key elements of the proposal.

Polls in Israel's two biggest newspapers, Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv, put opposition to Clinton's proposals at between 51 percent and 53 percent of the Israeli public and support for his ideas at 38 percent to 44 percent.

A Gallup poll of 597 people indicated Barak would win only 24 percent of the vote, compared with 45 for his challenger, top hawk Ariel Sharon, if the prime ministerial ballot was held now.

It was Barak's lowest rating since the Labor Party leader took office in July 1999 after defeating right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud by a 56 percent to 44 percent margin.

Clinton's ideas would reportedly give the Palestinians sovereignty over the al-Aqsa mosque plaza. Israel would control the area beneath, including Judaism's holy Western Wall.

The proposals, which Palestinian officials said needed to be more detailed, would give the Palestinians all of the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and around 95 percent of the West Bank for a future state.

In exchange for land adjoining Gaza, Israel would annex several West Bank settlement blocs where 80 percent of the 200,000 settlers now live on land captured in the 1967 conflict. (Agencies)






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