Palestinian And Israeli

JENIN, Israeli-Occupied West Bank -- This Palestinian town looks forward to the end of Israeli occupation the way a partner in a bad marriage anticipates a divorce: The end will be a relief, even if it means going broke.Palestinian and Israeli negotiators are scheduled to resume their talks tomorrow, after a suspension caused by a suicide bombing Monday that killed six Israelis in Tel Aviv. The negotiators are finishing plans for an Israeli withdrawal from major West Bank cities and a partial pullback from villages this year.

GAZA, Gaza Strip -- One night five years ago, Israeli troops stormed through a dusty alleyway here and burst into a bare concrete house. They herded the family into a corner and carted the paralyzed father in his wheelchair into a waiting van.That man, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, is now one of the most important symbols of opposition to the peace process. The demand for his release from an Israeli jail is a chief sticking point of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.Israel contends that the sheik, 58 and paralyzed below the neck, remains the figurative leader of the fundamentalist Muslim Hamas group.

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher, in a move that will bolster Palestinian hopes for an independent state in the West Bank, said yesterday that he will travel to Jericho this week to meet with the newly established Palestinian self-governing authority there.By making the unusual visit, only days after a Palestinian police force replaced Israelis in the West Bank town, Mr. Christopher said he hopes to boost the Palestinians' confidence and trumpet the first concrete results of their long-running peace negotiations.

JERUSALEM -- Calling the Palestinian uprising "the dream that has become a nightmare," Palestinian intellectuals and PLO leaders are demanding an end to an unchecked reign of terror against Palestinians by young men in the occupied territories.The sudden rash of crimes by masked youths, and an unprecedented collective self-criticism by Palestinian political and intellectual leaders, suggest the 42-month-old "intifada," or uprising, may be shifting into the hands of a small group of radical youths.