Palestinian Autonomy

JERUSALEM -- Israeli settlers, enraged by the murder of a 23-year-old man by Islamic militants, blocked roads in the occupied West Bank today.The main settlers' group, Yesha, said it blockaded 48 sites, preventing Palestinian villagers from going to work, many to jobs in Israel, in a further escalation of the growing confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians.Yesterday, Israeli settlers stoned Palestinian cars, bringing warnings that the protests could turn into a full-fledged rebellion against the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and its agreement on Palestinian autonomy.

WASHINGTON - As the Bush administration debates a proposal to create a provisional Palestinian state, signs are mounting that the idea could face a rocky domestic reception. While some experts on the region - such as former President Bill Clinton and his chief Middle East negotiator, Dennis Ross - praised the notion, other initial reactions indicate it could face a cross-fire of resistance from Republicans and Democrats. Even before Bush finalizes his proposal, conservatives are charging that the president would be rewarding terrorism if he endorses a provisional Palestinian state after of the latest attacks on Israelis.

JERUSALEM -- While the more outspoken Israeli settlers on the West Bank dig in their heels and vow never to leave, even if they're gradually surrounded by a Palestinian state, a few tentative voices of accommodation have begun to speak up."I think the peace process is bigger than the settlements," says Viktor Yonah, who for a year has lived with his wife in Adam, a settlement of about 100 families a few miles northeast of Jerusalem. "I've spoken to other families here. We've talked about what we would do if there was Palestinian autonomy in the region, and I think at least 40 families would be willing to move if the proper arrangements and compensation could be provided.

RAMALLAH, Israeli-Occupied West Bank -- They burned tires in Nablus and fought in Hebron streets, but this town has been quietly preparing for Palestinian autonomy by building.A construction boom is turning the bygone summer resort into the economic and administrative center for Palestinians, eight miles up the road from Jerusalem."This will be the most important city in the West Bank. It will be the center of the Palestinian Authority for the next five or 10 rTC years," said Ramallah resident Marwan Barguthi, a top official of the ruling Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Having taken the plunge, Israel and the PLO should try to announce their joint declaration of principles for a peace agreement as quickly as possible. They should try to establish lTC Palestinian autonomy in Gaza and Jericho as soon as feasible, to deliver tangible benefits to the Palestinians whom the PLO purports to represent.The sooner this accord can be complemented by a breakthrough linking Syria and Israel, the stronger the peace process will be. Jordan, the Arab neighbor that Israel coexisted with best, will wind up not first in the peace process but last, a testament to its weakness.

JABALIA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip -- For Ziyad Matar, the prospects of making a democracy out of the new Palestinian government are about as good as hurrying evolution."

Yasser Arafat delayed his return to Jericho because (A) he dreads the transition from guerrilla leader to governor of a poor little state; (B) he needs money to spend which donors are slow to provide; (C) his PLO is rent by dissension and rivalries with resident Palestinians; (D) he wants a public relations spectacular, unobtainable while world television is focused on the soccer World Cup; (E) Jericho, a popular resort in winter, is unbearably hot in July and August.Observers are trying to choose one or all of the above to explain the delays of the PLO chairman in taking over the land he has worked a lifetime to rule.

President Clinton's attempt to prevent money from the United States from reaching Middle East terrorists is correct and overdue. He may not succeed in blocking the flow. But he is showing U.S. support for the peace process that this terrorism is TC intended to destroy. And he is taking seriously the allegations of Israeli authorities that Hamas and other groups receive significant financial and organizational support from the U.S.The suicide bombing last weekend that took 19 lives and created a crisis of confidence inside Israel was a severe setback for peace.

RAMALLAH, Israeli-Occupied West Bank -- They burned tires in Nablus and fought in Hebron streets, but this town has been quietly preparing for Palestinian autonomy by building.A construction boom is turning the bygone summer resort into the economic and administrative center for Palestinians, eight miles up the road from Jerusalem."This will be the most important city in the West Bank. It will be the center of the Palestinian Authority for the next five or 10 rTC years," said Ramallah resident Marwan Barguthi, a top official of the ruling Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

WASHINGTON -- The stunning breakthrough in the Mideast peace negotiations was the result of the region's two most adamant combatants finally deciding to take peacemaking into their own hands.The Israeli leadership and Palestine Liberation Organization reached out to each other in mutual frustration over a stalemated formal peace process that was eroding each side's credibility with its populace, according to Arab and Israeli sources.As the 10th round of formal negotiations ended in Washington early this summer, Israelis concluded they would have to hold discussions with "whoever could influence" the process, a diplomat said.

President Clinton's attempt to prevent money from the United States from reaching Middle East terrorists is correct and overdue. He may not succeed in blocking the flow. But he is showing U.S. support for the peace process that this terrorism is TC intended to destroy. And he is taking seriously the allegations of Israeli authorities that Hamas and other groups receive significant financial and organizational support from the U.S.The suicide bombing last weekend that took 19 lives and created a crisis of confidence inside Israel was a severe setback for peace.

Yasser Arafat delayed his return to Jericho because (A) he dreads the transition from guerrilla leader to governor of a poor little state; (B) he needs money to spend which donors are slow to provide; (C) his PLO is rent by dissension and rivalries with resident Palestinians; (D) he wants a public relations spectacular, unobtainable while world television is focused on the soccer World Cup; (E) Jericho, a popular resort in winter, is unbearably hot in July and August.Observers are trying to choose one or all of the above to explain the delays of the PLO chairman in taking over the land he has worked a lifetime to rule.

JERICHO, West Bank -- A Palestinian official, just arrived with the new police force from Jordan, waxed eloquent on the telephone last week to his wife back home about life in Jericho."

JABALIA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip -- For Ziyad Matar, the prospects of making a democracy out of the new Palestinian government are about as good as hurrying evolution."

As PLO police enter and Israeli troops leave Gaza and Jericho, Palestinians will see that the long-delayed implementation of the Israel-PLO agreement is real. What so many have waited for so long has begun.This ought to raise Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat's standing with Palestinians and the Arab world. It was sinking so long as his people thought he had made concessions about Israel's legitimacy without ridding Palestinians of Israeli rule. It should rise as the Israeli presence begins to recede.

Davos, Switzerland -- The announcement of Israeli-Palestinian peace was meant to be the political set-piece of the World Economic Forum, held in this mountain resort a week ago. It failed to come off.Insofar as the two sides can, at this point, deliver peace, they already have done so by entering into negotiations and accepting a Norwegian-brokered agreement on Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and Jericho.The obstacles lie now in the details, which unfortunately are very weighty, concerning security for both Palestinians and Israeli settlers, the latter essential to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho.

JERICHO, West Bank -- A Palestinian official, just arrived with the new police force from Jordan, waxed eloquent on the telephone last week to his wife back home about life in Jericho."

Boston -- THE CONFLICT between Israelis and Palestinians has been going on for so long that even in its pain there has been, for many, a kind of security. The established pattern of force and bitter words seemed safer than actually negotiating with the other side and lowering the barriers of hate.One achievement of the talks in Madrid -- a singular achievement -- has been to make the idea of negotiation more attractive to both sides. Suddenly they were talking, and living with the other in peace seemed possible.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will try again today to break a deadlock that has frozen the start of a plan to begin Arab autonomy in Jericho and the Gaza Strip.Both sides predict that a solution will be found, but so far it has been unexpectedly elusive.The deadlock, which delayed the envisaged start of Israeli troop withdrawals last week, is the result of a collision of differing expectations and hardening strategies by both sides.Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization are both pressed by extremists who feel their side's negotiators already have given too much.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli settlers, enraged by the murder of a 23-year-old man by Islamic militants, blocked roads in the occupied West Bank today.The main settlers' group, Yesha, said it blockaded 48 sites, preventing Palestinian villagers from going to work, many to jobs in Israel, in a further escalation of the growing confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians.Yesterday, Israeli settlers stoned Palestinian cars, bringing warnings that the protests could turn into a full-fledged rebellion against the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and its agreement on Palestinian autonomy.