Palestinian Leaders

JERUSALEM -- Israeli negotiators headed yesterday night for another round of Middle East peace talks as senior officials here predicted that Arab delegations would also journey to Washington before long despite having delayed their travels to protest Israel's planned expulsion of 12 Palestinians from its occupied territories."

JERUSALEM -- The death of a Palestinian prisoner has refueled demonstrations in the Israeli-occupied territories, adding to the toll of victims and further straining the Middle East peace talks.Palestinian leaders acknowledge the two-week spasm of unrest in the occupied West Bank and Gaza threatens to jeopardize progress in the peace negotiations scheduled to resume next Wednesday in Washington.Palestinian negotiators are in Tunis, Tunisia, this week to get new directions from the Palestine Liberation Organization headquartered there.

JERUSALEM - Calling Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority a "rotten and dictatorial regime of terror," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that Israel would not enter any peace negotiations until it could sit down with a "different Authority." "The Palestinian Authority must be reformed in every respect," Sharon said, demanding changes to the political, security, social, financial and legal structures. "Everything must be overhauled." In his remarks to parliament, Sharon formally added the requirement of reform to his longstanding condition of a complete halt to all Palestinian violence and incitement against Israel before talks could begin.

JERUSALEM - Palestinian leaders struggled yesterday to resolve the political confusion triggered by the prime minister's attempt to resign, as fresh unrest erupted in the Gaza Strip over Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's decision to grant a cousin expanded powers over security forces. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Arafat met with disgruntled Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and again rejected his resignation submitted the day before, according to Saeb Erekat, a Cabinet member. Earlier yesterday, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip burned down a building belonging to a Palestinian Authority military intelligence service amid anger over Moussa Arafat being granted broad authority over security services as part of a sudden shake-up.

JERUSALEM -- Israel has approved construction of new housing for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, officials said yesterday, drawing protests from Palestinian leaders and Israeli peace activists who said the decision violates a three-year-old pledge to the United States to freeze settlement activity. Israeli officials insisted that there was no such breach, saying the site of the new homes for 100 families in the northern Jordan valley had been a Jewish settlement since 1981. But Palestinian leaders said the announcement, coming just three days after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas launched an effort to revive peace talks, undermined the cooperative spirit of the weekend meeting.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Col. Muammar el Kadafi's decision to expel 30,000 Palestinians from Libya has been greeted with dismay in the Middle East, where Arab countries have no intention of opening their doors to the would-be settlers.Lebanon already has denied entry to several thousand Palestinians who arrived on two ships from Cyprus and Greece without Lebanese travel documents, and Friday it banned maritime transport from Libya in hopes of cutting off the flow of deportees. About 350 Palestinians from Libya with proper documents were allowed to enter.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S decision to support Israel's retention of some West Bank settlements imposes a "new reality" on the Middle East peace process that contravenes decades of U.S. policy. America can no longer hold itself out as an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute - the White House is siding with Israel on one of the most contentious issues in the conflict, the presence of Jewish settlements on land occupied by Israel after the 1967 war and claimed by Palestinians. With his decision, Mr. Bush has eviscerated the governing principle of the peace process - that a negotiated settlement between the two sides based on a land-for-peace formula would end the conflict.

DEIR QADDIS, Occupied West Bank -- Ibrahim Katoos doesn't have to look very far to get angry about Israeli settlers encroaching on Palestinian lands. In recent weeks, the hill beyond his house was snapped up in the drive to expand Jewish settlements in the Israeli occupied territories.Katoos, a 67-year-old grandfather, joined hundreds of Palestinians in "Day of Rage" marches yesterday across the West Bank and Gaza Strip to protest land grabs occurring in the closing weeks of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

The Sun reports ("Bid for statehood may end; Possible deal delays U.N. debate, retains aid to Palestinians," September 21) that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "decided to approach the U.N. this year [for statehood recognition] because of his frustration that after nearly two decades of U.S.-led negotiations, the long-promised separate Palestinian state had not materialized. " That's one way of putting it, but it's Palestinian spin. It's Palestinian rejectionism that has frustrated U.S. diplomacy.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israeli officials said yesterday that they were considering withdrawing troops and dismantling checkpoints in some West Bank cities before Palestinian elections in January to choose a new president. A partial withdrawal would meet a key Palestinian demand and also be welcomed by U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who is scheduled to meet today with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in separate sessions. Those meetings signal the first high-level American involvement since June last year.