Palestinian And Israeli

JERUSALEM -- Israeli forces killed at least four Islamic militants in several airstrikes yesterday, including a high-ranking commander of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. The stepped-up military operations in Gaza followed a week of high-level diplomacy in Jerusalem intended to restart the stalled peace process. One airstrike killed Omar Khatib, a top Islamic Jihad commander, his deputy and another fighter from the group as they were driving in central Gaza, Israeli military and Islamic Jihad officials said.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- As one who for decades has supported a two-state solution and the nonviolent struggle for Palestinian rights, I view the recent conference in Annapolis with a great deal of skepticism - and a glimmer of hope. Seven years with no negotiations - and increasing numbers of Israeli settlers, an economic blockade in Gaza and an intricate network of roadblocks and checkpoints stifling movement in the West Bank - have led us to despair and distrust. Any commitment must be made not only to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008 but also to end Israel's occupation.

JERUSALEM -- Two Israeli newspapers published details yesterday of what they said was a U.S. plan that would restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.Neither U.S. nor Israeli officials would confirm the authenticity of the reported plan, but they did say an agreement could be reached in days.The plan, as reported by Haaretz and Maariv, retains the withdrawal from 13 percent of the land on the West Bank that the Palestinians and the Clinton administration have insisted on as a minimum for a resumption of talks.

While Israeli and Palestinian teams seek to iron out conditions for renewed peace talks in Annapolis this fall, deep divisions among the Palestinian and Israeli political leaderships doom any Middle East peace summit to failure. Peace talks are usually a good thing. However, now is not the right time for such a summit, because - with a divided Palestinian polity and Israel's leadership in trouble - no progress would be made. It is possible, even likely, that another failure would lead to more frustration and violence, and could serve to embolden extremists on both sides who are opposed to peace.

JERUSALEM - With little progress in the Middle East peace process, Palestinian and Israeli leaders set out yesterday on separate diplomatic missions, and both sides focused on talks with President Bush set for this week and next week. The Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, met Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, in Cairo as part of Abbas' first major foreign tour since assuming his post more than two months ago. Abbas has been hesitant to undertake such a journey while Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is confined by Israel to his West Bank compound in Ramallah.

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces shot and killed four young Palestinians in running clashes yesterday as the military expanded operations in the northern Gaza Strip to try to prevent rocket attacks being mounted from the area, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. Israeli soldiers moved into Beit Hanoun more than a month ago in response to the persistent Palestinian rocket attacks, many of them coming from militants hiding in orange and olive groves. But the attacks have continued. Soldiers in tanks and armored vehicles advanced yesterday to the outskirts of the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp, setting off several rounds of fighting in which three Palestinians were killed, according to the staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- An international court opened a hearing yesterday into the Israeli barrier being built in and around the West Bank, as pro-Palestinian demonstrators here voiced encouragement and supporters of Israel looked on. In a three-hour presentation to the International Court of Justice, the Palestinian Authority argued that the partially built barrier of barbed wire, ditches, watch posts and concrete walls is a violation of international law...

JERUSALEM - They have worked with Weight Watchers and the New York Yankees. Now the experts at Rubenstein Associates, a public relations firm, are taking on a new client: the state of Israel, which hopes to spruce up its image in the deadly conflict with the Palestinians. The New York-based agency, hired this year, already has come up with several suggestions it believes would help Israel sanitize the battlefield. First, reduce the number of security guards hovering around Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

JENIN, West Bank -- Palestinian Col. Ribhi Arafat strode into a white mobile trailer yesterday to help take over the first major West Bank city from Israel.His counterpart, an Israeli soldier, offered a handshake and said: "Congratulations, you now have Jenin," Colonel Arafat said later.With that, Israel started the clock on a timetable of withdrawal that will dismantle its 28-year military occupation in Jenin within three weeks and in five other West Bank towns by the end of the year."It's a very, very important day," said the burly Palestinian officer, who spent the better part of 27 years in Algeria after Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the June 1967 Six Day War. He is no relation to Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat.

SECRETARY OF STATE Colin L. Powell leaves the Middle East much as he found it: Israeli tanks have the run of Palestinian cities, most Palestinians remain confined to their homes and leader Yasser Arafat is still holed up in his battered compound on the West Bank. The cease-fire Mr. Powell hoped to negotiate in the 18-month conflict never materialized, but far fewer suicide bombers have struck inside Israel since the secretary of state left Washington 10 days ago on his peace mission. That can only be attributed to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's refusal to buckle under American pressure to stop his campaign of brute force against a "terrorist infrastructure" in Palestinian cities and refugee camps.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice received measured support from Egypt yesterday for an Israeli-Palestinian peace conference despite widespread doubts in the Middle East that it will result in a lasting deal or improve security in the region. Rice's trip to Cairo was a diplomatic effort to convince Arab capitals to attend the Bush administration's summit, which has no official date but is expected to take place before year's end in Annapolis; Israeli officials have said it is expected to begin Nov. 26. Egypt has been skeptical of the idea for weeks, but after meeting with Rice, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told a news conference that he backed the plan.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli forces killed at least four Islamic militants in several airstrikes yesterday, including a high-ranking commander of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. The stepped-up military operations in Gaza followed a week of high-level diplomacy in Jerusalem intended to restart the stalled peace process. One airstrike killed Omar Khatib, a top Islamic Jihad commander, his deputy and another fighter from the group as they were driving in central Gaza, Israeli military and Islamic Jihad officials said.

JERICHO, West Bank - Israel restored security control over the town of Jericho to the Palestinian Authority yesterday, removing a checkpoint and easing travel into this sleepy desert oasis. The handover, carried out after several delays, was the first step of what is supposed to be a phased return of five West Bank towns to Palestinian security control. An agreement on the handovers was reached at the Middle East summit in Egypt last month, where the Palestinian and Israeli leaders declared a truce.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - In this Christmas season of hopes and fears, the little town of Bethlehem finds itself suspended somewhere between the two. With lamplight glowing softly on ancient stones and incense's musty fragrance penetrating the damp winter chill, Palestinian Christians, foreign dignitaries and a smattering of tourists celebrated midnight Mass last night in the basilica built on the spot where tradition says Jesus was born. The holiday - marked by its usual disorienting Holy Land melange of army roadblocks and candlelight carols, twinkling lights and olive-drab armored vehicles - has seen some tentative cause for optimism this year: the easing of day-to-day violent conflict with Israel, coupled with greater Palestinian aspirations to democracy in the wake of Yasser Arafat's death.

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces shot and killed four young Palestinians in running clashes yesterday as the military expanded operations in the northern Gaza Strip to try to prevent rocket attacks being mounted from the area, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. Israeli soldiers moved into Beit Hanoun more than a month ago in response to the persistent Palestinian rocket attacks, many of them coming from militants hiding in orange and olive groves. But the attacks have continued. Soldiers in tanks and armored vehicles advanced yesterday to the outskirts of the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp, setting off several rounds of fighting in which three Palestinians were killed, according to the staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- An international court opened a hearing yesterday into the Israeli barrier being built in and around the West Bank, as pro-Palestinian demonstrators here voiced encouragement and supporters of Israel looked on. In a three-hour presentation to the International Court of Justice, the Palestinian Authority argued that the partially built barrier of barbed wire, ditches, watch posts and concrete walls is a violation of international law...

CAIRO, Egypt -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice received measured support from Egypt yesterday for an Israeli-Palestinian peace conference despite widespread doubts in the Middle East that it will result in a lasting deal or improve security in the region. Rice's trip to Cairo was a diplomatic effort to convince Arab capitals to attend the Bush administration's summit, which has no official date but is expected to take place before year's end in Annapolis; Israeli officials have said it is expected to begin Nov. 26. Egypt has been skeptical of the idea for weeks, but after meeting with Rice, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told a news conference that he backed the plan.

JERICHO, West Bank - Israel restored security control over the town of Jericho to the Palestinian Authority yesterday, removing a checkpoint and easing travel into this sleepy desert oasis. The handover, carried out after several delays, was the first step of what is supposed to be a phased return of five West Bank towns to Palestinian security control. An agreement on the handovers was reached at the Middle East summit in Egypt last month, where the Palestinian and Israeli leaders declared a truce.

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop outside Tel Aviv yesterday, killing himself and four Israelis shortly after missiles fired from an Israeli helicopter killed five Palestinians, one a senior militant leader. The two attacks were thought to be coincidental, but they came after nearly three months of relative calm and threaten stepped-up efforts by the United States and Egypt to restart a faltering peace process. Renewed violence could send the region hurtling toward a new series of deadly attacks and reprisals that have almost become a choreographed routine of the conflict that has ground on for 38 months and claimed more than 3,500 lives.

WASHINGTON - A powerful remote-controlled bomb blew up under an official U.S. convoy in the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing three American security guards and drawing the United States more deeply into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The explosion marked the first fatal attack on U.S. personnel in the 3-year-old Palestinian uprising. A State Department spokesman said the Bush administration assumed that the American convoy had been specifically targeted. President Bush quickly blamed Palestinian authorities, particularly Yasser Arafat, for a failure to crack down on militant groups - a failure the president called the "greatest obstacle" to achieving statehood.