Israel Rejects U.S. Proposal for Bigger Pullout

JERUSALEM —  Israel took a hard line Sunday against a new U.S. effort to restart stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, describing as “unacceptable” the U.S. proposal that Israel withdraw from an additional 13% of the West Bank within three months.

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also declared in a statement after Sunday’s Cabinet meeting that Israel “expects the United States to adhere” to earlier promises that Israel alone will determine the scope of its pullouts from the West Bank. “Reports of a 13% withdrawal are unacceptable,” the statement said.

The strong words, along with two recent phone conversations between Netanyahu and President Clinton and a flurry of emissaries from Jerusalem to Washington, were aimed at trying to keep the United States from going public with its ideas on how to break a yearlong deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

Late Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed that envoy Dennis B. Ross will return to the region at the end of the week for what political analysts predicted could be a final effort to persuade Israel and the Palestinians to make progress on peace before the U.S. offers its own plan.

The U.S. initiative was first presented to Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat during separate discussions in January with Clinton. It has not been made public, apparently because of objections to its contents by both Israeli and Palestinian officials, but details have been leaked--and confirmed by the parties.

The plan calls for Israel to turn over an additional 13% of the West Bank to the Palestinians in a three-phase troop withdrawal over a three-month period. In exchange for the new territory, the Palestinians would be required to take specific actions to stop incitement against Israel and crack down on Islamic extremist groups that have carried out attacks against Israeli citizens.

Israeli officials have said, however, that the next withdrawal, already months overdue, can amount to no more than 9% of the West Bank. The Palestinians now have full control over 3% of the territory and civil authority over an additional 24%.

But Israel’s greatest concern is the pressure that any public U.S. presentation of the new proposals would bring to bear on its government, especially if Clinton announces the initiative himself. Then, if the Palestinians accept the plan and Israel does not, “we’ll . . . appear like the intransigent party, unwilling to accept American proposals,” said David Bar-Illan, a senior aide to Netanyahu.

In Israel’s battle to keep the initiative private, Netanyahu and Clinton spoke by telephone Thursday and again Saturday. Israeli officials said Netanyahu told Clinton that a 13% withdrawal would never be approved by his Cabinet and that Israel’s security concerns alone will influence its decisions.

“What situation will Israel find itself in if it accepts dictates on its security?” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel Two television Sunday. “How can we reach a final settlement if they dictate what our security needs are?”

In recent weeks, Israel also has sent a series of emissaries to Washington to meet with Clinton administration officials and ask for delays in any presentation of the U.S. proposals. Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky last week became the latest of those envoys, taking advantage of a meeting with Vice President Al Gore on the potential nuclear threat from Iran to convey Netanyahu’s concerns on the West Bank plan.

It remained unclear Sunday when the U.S. initiative might be made public. Clinton arrives in Africa today and will not return to Washington for two weeks. Nonetheless, American officials have said the U.S. plan will be officially presented before long. “It’s all a question of timing,” one said.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu on Sunday denied media reports that Israel, as part of its recent proposal to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, had agreed to resume negotiations with Syria from the point where they broke off two years ago. The talks were stopped a few months before Netanyahu came to power, when they had reportedly progressed to within reach of an agreement.

Momentum is building in Israel for a pullout from southern Lebanon, even without a comprehensive agreement with Lebanon and its powerful neighbor Syria. Israel has proposed a conditional withdrawal, in accordance with U.N. Resolution 425, in exchange for security arrangements.

But U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who visited the Syrian capital, Damascus, as part of a Middle East tour that will bring him to Israel today, told a news conference Sunday that Syrian officials were deeply skeptical of the Israeli offer.