Stop-and-go on Mideast truce

Thursday, June 26, 2003

INCONCLUSIVE efforts to arrange a cease-fire between Palestinian militants and Israel, a necessary step to push the parties along the path set by President Bush's "road map" to Mideast peace, show how hard winning a settlement will be. No sooner did a surprising report emerge on Wednesday from Syria and the Israeli prison cell of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti -- to the effect that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah (parent of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades) had agreed to a three-month cessation of attacks on Israelis -- than the credibility of the purported deal was fractured.

Representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad quickly denied such an agreement.

And Israel, which would have to be part of any cease-fire worthy of the name, killed four more Palestinians in a missile strike and gun battle in the Gaza Strip. Bush reacted skeptically to the truce claim: "I'll believe it when I see it."

Attempts are still under way, by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian mediators among others, to get the terrorist organizations to lay down their arms -- at least temporarily -- in the hope the peace process will take hold. The "road map" has as a goal the achievement of Palestinian statehood by 2005. But difficult issues standing in the way of success in the peace effort include the extent of Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory, the fate of Jewish settlements there, the status of Jerusalem and the claim by Palestinian refugees to a "right of return" to their homeland.

The rough peace plan is sponsored by the United Nations, the European Union and Russia in addition to the United States, and the support of moderate Arab states has been enlisted. Secretary of State Colin Powell spent much of the past week in the Middle East conferring with officials and commenting pointedly on troubles such as Israel's counterproductive targeted killings of Hamas leaders. Powell echoed Bush on the need for both sides to turn from violence.

In possible preliminaries to substantive peace talks, Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials have been discussing terms for an early Israeli withdrawal from much of the Gaza Strip and from Bethlehem. The Israeli government has dismantled some illegal "outposts" of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, too.

High-ranking leaders on both sides, unfortunately, have been less than exemplary in acting on their formal support of the new peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- when not giving lip service to Bush's peace initiative -- continues to act the hawkish military commander he spent most of his career being. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority president sidelined in the new negotiation because no one trusts him, was reported to be seeking funds from Libya's Moammar Khadafy for continued support of terrorists who attack Israeli civilians as well as soldiers. So the peacemakers face not only visible obstacles, but those hidden in the hearts of leading players.