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“Still time for peace before Clinton leaves”

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December 3, 2000 

WASHINGTON--(AP) - Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, an architect of past accords with the Palestinians, said that an overall Middle East settlement could be concluded in the 50 days President Bill Clinton has remaining in office.

Beilin, who is close to Prime Minister Ehud Barak and came to Washington to meet with top U.S. officials, said Friday: "Despite everything, I am optimistic. I believe in human beings."

Later in the day, Clinton telephoned Barak and told him during a 45-minute conversation that he is willing to continue pursuing an agreement during his last seven weeks in office.

"It is really an opportunity if they want to take advantage of the president's knowledge of the complexities of the peace process," P.J. Crowley, national security spokesman at the White House, told reporters Friday night. "The president reiterated: `I'm willing to do whatever I can in the time that I have remaining."'

Beilin said there was virtual agreement between the two sides on nearly all issues and suggested that there were ways to resolve the two toughest - the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

He suggested that the capital of a Palestinian state could be established in an eastern suburb of Jerusalem.

He said Palestinian refugees with relatives in Israel and others with humanitarian needs could be admitted to Israel.

Most of the Jewish settlements on the West Bank would be dismantled, and Jews who remained would not be under Israeli sovereignty, Beilin said. Consequently, he said, most of the settlers will quit what would then be part of a Palestinian state because "they would not prefer to live under Palestinian sovereignty."

But, Beilin, in a speech to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said Israel could not accept a "right of return" of all Palestinians - and their descendants - who claim they were forced out of Israel when it was established in 1948.

That, he said, would change the character of the Jewish state.

Earlier, Beilin told reporters at the Israeli Embassy that the sharply scaled-down peace deal the prime minister proposed Thursday was no more than a "fallback position."

"We don't want it; Barak doesn't want it," he said. But if Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat prefers a partial accord - one that would give him a state and put off disputes over Jerusalem and refugees - that would be all right with the Barak government, Beilin said.

"The future is now," he said. "If we don't do things now, we may miss the boat."

More than two months of violence have not changed Barak's goal of a full settlement with Arafat, he said, and while Israel has a "long list of complaints" to make against the Palestinians, they probably have some, too.

Beilin stressed, though, that "we are not ready to negotiate with the Palestinians while they are still shooting."

The Israeli official had meetings scheduled with Sandy Berger, Clinton's national security assistant; Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering; and senior U.S. mediator Dennis Ross, among others.

Crowley said Berger and Beilin talked an hour about the peace process; a committee set up to investigate causes of the recent violence; and a dlrs 750 million aid package to help support stability in the region, which the Clinton administration is pushing Congress to pass when it returns next week.

Beilin said Barak was not seeking a summit meeting, but wants the administration to pursue a settlement with direct and indirect talks with both sides.

"We need a third party, and we don't have a better than party than the Americans," Beilin said.

Barak still considers Arafat his "partner" in peacemaking, Beilin said, and the Palestinian Authority is stronger than ever before.

Still, the Israeli minister said that if the violence continues much longer, "the heroes of the street" may sweep aside the current Palestinian leadership. As a result, Beilin said, Arafat is more interested in pursuing peace with Israel now than a month ago.

Barak, he said, remains willing to pay a "high price" for peace.

"We are far from giving up," he said. And while conditions have changed, "there is a chance" for concluding an agreement in the 50 days Clinton has remaining, he said.

On the Net: State Department's Mideast Peace site http://www.state.gov/www/regions/nea/peace-process.html