A Test for the Mideast

Israel will not proceed with this week’s scheduled redeployment of its troops from the West Bank because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that the Palestinian Authority has not met its commitment to prevent violence. It’s unlikely that his decision will be reversed any time soon. Next week the prime minister faces a confidence vote in the Israeli Knesset. If he wins, he will no doubt take the result as validation of his foot-dragging policy on the peace process. If his fractious government falls apart, the peace process will be essentially suspended until new elections can be held next year. Either way, the coming months could pose the severest test yet for the tenuous agreement the United States has worked so hard to sustain.

President Clinton’s on-the-scene efforts this week to bridge Israeli-Palestinian differences fell well short of success, though his visit to Gaza did give an enormous boost to Palestinian pride, self-confidence and--though Clinton never mentioned it--the aspiration for statehood. At no cost to Israel, Clinton raised the U.S.-Palestinian relationship to its highest level yet. In Gaza, he witnessed the formal eradication of odious clauses in the decades-old Palestinian charter that called for Israel’s destruction. Netanyahu expressed satisfaction with that long-demanded action, even as he again cited a dozen alleged failures by the Palestinians to meet their obligations under the interim peace accord.

There has never been an easy period in Israeli-Palestinian relations, but the coming weeks could be especially trying. If the Palestinian Authority fails to quell the mini-intifada lately mounted by young Palestinians or if terrorists succeed in carrying out new outrages within Israel, the effect as Israelis sort out their own political future could be devastating to the chances of eventually resuming serious negotiations.

The best hope on the Israeli side for giving new life to the Oslo accords lies in a change of government that would turn over power to those who recognize that only through re-sponsible compromise can peace and long-term security be achieved. The best hope on the Palestinian side lies in Yasser Arafat’s regime meeting its obligations to take vigorous action “against all expressions or threats of violence or terror” and at the same time curbing its foolish and provocative talk of unilaterally proclaiming statehood next spring. Washington, as always, stands ready to help. But it cannot be more in favor of peace than the two sides that have the most to gain from it.