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Arafat's last try at a peace

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January 2, 2001 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Yasser Arafat agreed Monday to go to Washington for what Palestinians called a last try at a peace breakthrough before President Clinton leaves office in three weeks. A car bomb exploded in a coastal Israeli city, injuring dozens.

Arafat spokesman Nabil Aburedeneh called the Palestinian leader's trip ``a decisive visit at which the future of the peace process will be determined.''

Palestinian officials announced Tuesday's early-morning trip after a new phone call from Clinton putting pressure on Arafat to say ``yes'' to the U.S. leader's invitation to peace talks.

While Arafat's planned meeting with Clinton didn't mean he accepted the invitation to talks, it kept alive the prospect that such acceptance would come before Clinton leaves office Jan. 20.

Israel has already agreed to Clinton's slate of terms for negotiations for a final peace deal, with reservations, making for a possible three-way summit if Arafat does sign on.

Monday's bombing — and the prospect of Israeli retaliation — raised tensions as the clock ticks away on Clinton's term.

The bomb detonated in a parked car in the city of Netanya, 20 miles north of Tel Aviv, sending off three rapid-fire blasts that shattered windows and blew apart vehicles on a crowded shopping street.

``Cars were ripped up, women (were) screaming,'' a witness told army radio. Police ordered people from the area for fear of more bombs.

Israel radio said 54 people received treatment. Only one was seriously hurt. Israeli Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki told reporters police suspect he was involved in the bombing. Hospital spokesman Etty Shiling said the man was in critical condition.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The Hamas militant group denied involvement but called such attacks a ``holy right' for Palestinians.

Israel quickly threatened retaliation.

``I think the time has come to stand up and say enough,'' Deputy Prime Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, a retired general, said.

``Our forbearance cannot go on, and in my opinion the reaction has to be vigorous and immediate ... it has to be made clear to Arafat, whom I still see as responsible for all that is happening in the territories.''

Israel immediately closed Gaza's airport, sealing off the territory entirely after closing West Bank and Gaza's land borders following two bombings Thursday.

More than 350 people have been killed in three months of near-daily bloodshed, most of them Palestinians.

Clinton's invitation to peace talks have been stalled for more than a week on Palestinians' demand for clarification of the terms. U.S. officials have refused to go into details of the terms before the Palestinians give a clear 'yes' to the talks invitation.

Aburedeneh, the Arafat spokesman, said Clinton and Arafat ``will discuss the American ideas and the clarifications the Palestinians are requesting concerning these ideas.''

P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the president's National Security Council, said the Palestinian and U.S. leaders decided they should meet face to face to seek a ``common understanding'' about what the talks would cover.

Palestinian officials said Israel's closing of the Gaza airport would not effect the trip, planned for just after midnight Monday.

Earlier Monday, Arafat declared his people would keep resisting what he called Israeli aggression.

``I say that our people are very strong and will continue their struggles and confrontations,'' Arafat said in Gaza.

Clinton's proposals include asking Israel to surrender sovereignty over a Jerusalem site revered by both Muslims and Jews, and asking Palestinians to renounce their claim of the ``right of return'' of 4 million Palestinian refugees and their families.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak raised the possibility Monday of a ``unilateral separation'' from the Palestinians if the peace efforts fail.

``We must part from the Palestinians. It is one of our highest priorities to do so in an agreement, but we will have to prepare to do so without an agreement if it becomes clear that the Palestinians are not interested in an agreement,'' Barak told army radio, speaking before tne new blasts.

Unilateral separation would entail Israel setting borders between Israel and Palestinian land — a harsh prospect for both sides absent negotiations to resolve the difficulties involved.

For Israel, it would mean the dilemma of what to do for the 200,000 Jews living in settlements in the West Bank.

Also Monday, about 1,500 Jewish settlers inflamed by two high-profile killings in their own West Bank community barricaded a route near the site of the deaths, vowing to ``take back the roads.'' Binyamin Kahane, son of late extremist U.S. Rabbi Meir Kahane, and his wife Talia died Sunday when suspected Palestinian gunmen opened fire on their vehicle.

Waiting in the wings for Israel's Feb. 6 elections, front-runner and right-winger Ariel Sharon held out assurances of security Monday for Israeli voters.

Sharon has been widely blamed for the current violence, which began with protests against his Sept. 28 visit to a hotly disputed Jerusalem holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram es-Sharif.