Palestinians And Israelis

THE AID pledged Monday to the Palestinian Authority by the United States and other nations at a Washington conference -- more than $3 billion -- is needed to make the peace between the Palestinians and Israelis stick.This is not a reward to the authority's president, Yasser Arafat, for being a good guy. It is a commitment to support the agreement that President Clinton brokered in October at Wye Plantation on the Eastern Shore.That said, the most important economic partner for the Palestinian Authority is still Israel.

IN A YEAR, the dream of an independent Palestinian state was to be realized under the U.S.-sponsored "road map" to peace. But the peace process is in shambles, and in the absence of any dialogue on resolving the present stalemate, Israeli and Palestinian leaders are advancing their own agendas. Each antagonizes the other, with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowing to physically and diplomatically "disengage" from the Palestinians, and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia proposing one state for two peoples.

NO OTHER event in recent history provides Palestinians with the chance to transform their political landscape like the death of Yasser Arafat. With his passing yesterday in France, Palestinians have been freed from the constraints of his one-man rule, polarizing personality and failed leadership. As they eulogize the guerrilla patron of their nationalist cause, Palestinians should reflect on the cost of violence and terror in the past four years and the thousands who have died in the uprising against the Israeli occupation.

The confrontation between Israel and Hamas on the Gaza Strip can come to no good end. Friends of both Israel and the Palestinian people should urge an early truce before the bloody violence escalates further with tragic consequences. As the aerial assault in Gaza entered its third day, it has become clear that the Israelis are determined not to stop until Hamas ends its rain of rockets that has paralyzed life in some southern Israeli towns in recent days. But with more than 300 Palestinians, including at least 50 civilians, already killed by Israeli bombs, and a ground assault increasingly likely, there has been widespread international condemnation of the scale of the attacks and pleas to both sides for at least a temporary halt in the fighting.

IT IS TIME for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to meet Yasser Arafat, the president of the Palestinian Authority, to begin a relationship that can in time complete the peace process spelled out in the Oslo accord. Israel-Palestinian relations are worsening, punctuated by the Palestinian general strike yesterday called by Mr. Arafat to protest expansion of Israeli settlements and stalled negotiations. Mr. Netanyahu's campaign promise of peace with security implies engaging the elected leader of 2 million Palestinian neighbors, not humiliating him.The best indications are that even many Israeli hawks who helped put Mr. Netanyahu in office want him to talk to Mr. Arafat.

KFAR SHMARIYAHU, Israel - Powerlessness and frustration overwhelm millions of Israelis and Palestinians - powerlessness to halt death and frustration when they see their respective leaders stray from resolving their decades-old conflict. They feel stymied by endless Israeli party politics, power struggles within the Palestinian Authority and the thus far ineffectual efforts of the United States to achieve a viable diplomatic breakthrough. Many believe the leaders themselves stand in the way of a mass desire for peace.

THURMONT -- The Camp David peace talks headed into overtime early this morning, as negotiators toiled past midnight and President Clinton delayed a trip to Japan to try to nail down the lingering, painful details of a possible peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis. Clinton had been due to leave this morning for the G-8 summit of industrialized nations in Japan. As late as 10 p.m. yesterday, the White House was portraying his departure scheduled for 9:50 a.m. today as an unmovable deadline in an effort to push the Palestinians and Israelis into accord.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli officials are starting the new year armed with a new law, one that they say will put an end to Palestinian political activity in the Holy City.Israel's Knesset, or parliament, has approved legislation that the government of Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin and the main opposition party tout as a way to strengthen Israeli rule in Jerusalem.The legislation, which takes effect Monday, restricts activities of the self-governing Palestinian Authority to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho -- areas that Israel handed over to the Palestinians in May.It bars the Palestine Liberation Organization or the Palestinian Authority from carrying out any activity in Israel without Israeli government permission.

JERUSALEM -- President Clinton's special envoy to the Middle East ended a 24-hour round of emergency consultations with Palestinians and Israelis yesterday amid signs of an imminent end to the latest recriminations and violence.Public statements by the Israelis and Palestinians betrayed no moderation after their meetings with Dennis Ross. But there were various indications of a lifting of tensions even as Palestinian youths stoned Israeli soldiers for the eighth straight day, this time in Hebron, and in return were punished with tear gas and rubber bullets.

TEL AVIV, Israel - This week's deadly car bombing in the Gaza Strip was a direct attack on U.S. interests and was probably caused by rising anti-American sentiment in the Palestinian territories, a senior U.S. official said yesterday. FBI investigators met for several hours yesterday with their Palestinian counterparts at an Israeli military checkpoint on the Gaza border to pick through the evidence gathered so far. Wednesday's attack, which killed three American security guards working under contract for the U.S. government, was the first direct deadly attack on a U.S. target in more than 50 years of fighting between Palestinians and Israelis, and signaled a worrying new development in the bloody conflict.