New Violence Undermines Arafat’s Pledge

JERUSALEM —  Israeli troops came under scattered gunfire Friday and killed two Palestinians, including a suspected attacker, as Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s promised effort to halt a 14-week-old uprising fell short.

Newspapers in Israel reported that Arafat had quietly instructed his security services Thursday to crack down on Palestinian militants after he conditionally accepted President Clinton’s outline for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

Israeli leaders have said they were willing to go along with Clinton’s last-ditch attempt only because Arafat had promised the U.S. president in two meetings Tuesday that he would try to control Palestinian gunmen.

On Friday, Clinton conferred at the White House with Israeli negotiator Gilead Sher as he continued his long-shot effort to broker a peace agreement before he leaves office Jan. 20. An Israeli official said Sher assured Clinton that Israel is ready to negotiate on the basis of the parameters the president outlined last month as long as the Palestinians also accept.

The Israeli official, who declined to be identified, said Sher handed Clinton a six-page Israeli analysis of the president’s plan. Although the official wouldn’t release the document, he said it does not contain anything that Israeli officials have not said publicly in recent days about their concerns.

With only 15 days left in Clinton’s term, evidence was growing that all three parties--Israelis, Palestinians and Americans--are positioning themselves to escape blame for what all sides appear to think will be a failure.

A senior White House official said the gaps between the Israeli and Palestinian positions seem to be too wide to bridge before Clinton leaves office, despite Washington’s best efforts to broker an agreement.

“No one is giving up,” the official said. “We’re still looking for middle ground. But there’s not really enough time, given all the work that still needs to be done.”

Some of those involved in the peace process, Israelis and Palestinians alike, said a joint “declaration of principles” about the basis for a peace deal is the most they can hope for by the time Clinton hands the presidency to George W. Bush.

“Certainly you cannot be optimistic about reaching a final agreement in the next two weeks,” Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said. But he added that progress is needed so the new U.S. administration “will not inherit a destroyed or explosive political situation.”

Adding to pessimism in both camps on hopes of reaching a peace deal within the next two weeks, the violence in the Palestinian territories, which had diminished over the past week, appeared to escalate somewhat Thursday night and Friday.

Israel said its troops came under attack in at least 16 places in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but the only reported casualties were Palestinians hit by retaliatory fire.

Leaders of Fatah, Arafat’s own faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization, joined with other Palestinian groups in rejecting the Clinton proposal and urging its militants to continue the uprising until all Israeli soldiers and settlers are expelled from the territories.

That decision, made by a coalition known as the National and Islamic Forces, was published Friday by Palestinian newspapers that in previous days had toned down their criticism of Israel. The coalition has been directing the uprising, or intifada.

Arafat’s promise was further undermined when Mohammed Dahlan, his security chief in Gaza, was quoted Thursday as saying the intifada “will continue independently of any negotiations.”

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, about 300 Palestinians marched after Friday prayers in a protest against the peace process and hurled stones at Israeli soldiers. The troops fired tear-gas grenades and rubber bullets, wounding 12 Palestinians.

Israel Radio said dozens of Palestinians but no Israelis were wounded in Friday’s clashes. A 19-year-old Palestinian woman was killed and her younger sister wounded, the army said, when Israeli soldiers guarding a Jewish settlement returned fire at unseen snipers in nearby Hebron in the West Bank.

Palestinian witnesses told reporters that the alleged snipers were merely children playing with fireworks.

The Israeli army also said its soldiers shot and killed a 37-year-old Palestinian as he was charging in the dark at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel and shouting, “God is greatest!” No weapon was found on him, the army acknowledged.

The two deaths, the first in three days of fighting, brought the toll in the uprising to at least 357, including 301 Palestinians.

Still, Friday was not as bloody as many other days of the intifada and not bloody enough to disrupt the negotiations.

Israel said envoy Sher was focusing his Washington talks on how to end the violence. Arriving in the U.S. capital, he told Israel Radio, “There cannot be any progress until we see how serious [the Palestinians] are about arresting people involved in attacks on Israelis and resuming cooperation” with Israeli security officials.

Caretaker Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s “peace Cabinet” won’t decide whether to continue the talks until after Sher returns to Jerusalem, Israeli officials said.

“The chances of a breakthrough or even progress are slim,” Sher told Israel Radio from Washington.

On Friday, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot said Barak is ready to suggest to Clinton that substantive new peace talks wait until after Israel’s Feb. 6 election, which his hawkish challenger, Ariel Sharon, is favored to win.

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Boudreaux reported from Jerusalem and Kempster from Washington. Times staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.