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Barak, Clinton meet about violence

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November 13, 2000 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak appealed to President Clinton Sunday to do all he could to end a violent confrontation with the Palestinians.

But Barak did not ask Clinton to prod Yasser Arafat for a public statement urging Palestinians to halt riots and rock-throwing that have prompted a deadly Israeli response, a senior U.S. official said. Earlier Sunday, at an Islamic conference in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar, Arafat vowed a ``jihad and the resistance of the occupation'' against Israel would be continued. Emerging from a meeting of more than two hours with Clinton, Barak said Israel expected the governments and people of the free world ``to make their own judgment about whether a jihad or a negotiated agreement is the right way to solve conflict.

'' Clinton saw Barak to the door of the White House and they shook hands. The president made no statement afterward. But a senior official, briefing reporters under rules that cloaked his identity, said Clinton and Barak had agreed there was no military solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The president made the same point in his meeting with Arafat at the White House on Thursday, the official said. Clinton is determined to find a formula for ending the six-week outbreak and is in the process of deciding whether to send an envoy to the region or to take some other specific steps, the official said. He suggested Clinton had accepted the burden of terminating the conflict that has taken a toll of nearly 200 lives. 

There was no discussion of holding another summit, the official said. In a brief exchange with reporters, Barak said Israel had been prepared at the summit Clinton hosted in July at Camp David to consider ``far-reaching ideas'' to promote peace, but now ``we do hear different signals from the Arab side.'' The main goal now, he said, was to put an end to the violence by implementing a truce Arafat and he agreed to at an emrgency summit last month in Egypt. Barak, whose arrival in Washington was delayed by hijacking crisis back home that wound up being resolved while he was en route, gave no indication, though, that the White House meeting would help end the bloodshed. The Israeli leader, who arrived after nightfall at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland and went directly to the White House, was expected to ask Clinton to put heat on Arafat to make a public declaration that the Palestinians should not attack Israeli soldiers and civilians. But the senior U.S. official said Barak made no specific request.

Arafat, meanwhile, was defiant at an Islamic summit conference in Qatar, where Saudi Arabia, considered moderate by the United States, joined in a call on Muslim nations to cut any ties with Israel. Arafat said the Palestinians ``are determined more then ever to continue their jihad and the resistance of the occupation.''

The violence has shattered what remained of Clinton's hopes for a settlement before his term ends in January. Clinton had Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Sandy Berger, his assistant for national security; and U.S. mediator Dennis B. Ross, at his side in the Oval Office. Barak was assisted by close aides Gilad Sher and Danny Yatom, and David Ivry, the Israeli ambassador to Washington. Clinton and Barak posed for pictures seated in front of a fireplace. They took no questions, and reporters were not permitted to attend the brief picture-taking session. En route, Yatom told reporters Barak's meeting with Clinton was ``very important and critical to the peace process.''

He said the three-point agenda was to try to bring violence to an end, to look for ways to cease incitement and to discuss possibilities and options for continuing the peace process. Arafat, who held discussions Thursday with the president, indicated afterward that he would consider another Middle East summit, with Clinton as host, provided it was well-prepared ``to ensure its success.'' And that, the Palestinian leader said, meant on accord on both Jerusalem and refugees. Barak has refused to turn over East Jerusalem to the Palestinians, but offered them a larger role in running their daily affairs in Israel's declared capital. He has called a time-out in peacemaking until the violence ends. Sunday's meeting was set for early afternoon but was pushed back into the evening because of the hijacking. The delay led to the cancellation of a planned meeting with Albright and Berger.

Barak was scheduled to speak Monday evening in Chicago before a meeting of the United Jewish Communities and planned to fly to Chicago late Sunday night, after seeing Clinton. Clinton, meantime, was departing Monday for an economic meeting in Brunei followed by the first presidential visit to communist Vietnam since the war's end in 1975. Nearly 200 people, most of them Palestinians but also Israeli soldiers and civilians, have died in six weeks of violence on the West Bank, in Gaza and Israel. Arafat blamed Barak directly, saying Thursday night after meeting with Clinton that the prime minister had reneged on a promise to withdraw Israeli forces from Palestinian areas.