Peace mission tests the survival skills of Clinton, Netanyahu Clinton begins challenging diplomatic trip

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The Roanoke Times, Sunday, Dec. 13, 1998 Peace mission tests the survival skills of Clinton, Netanyahu A21 The leaders of both nations are facing crises of confidence in their the other's potential impact on his requirements for security be met." leadership and fear the impact of the other's actions.

Palestinians, under an accord security, agreements which only own precarious position. The he said. reached at the Wye River Planta- serve to conceal belligerent aims, House will vote late this week on But he added that "for two tion in Maryland.

Now, when fail- NEW YORK TIMES JERUSALEM - President Clinton arrived in Israel just before midnight Saturday on an intricate mission to revive the peace effort, a centerpiece of his foreign policy.

On a cool, overcast night, Clinton was greeted with trumpets and an honor guard, but also with flinty remarks from Israeli Prime agreements brazenly flouted and Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared that the Palestinians had not kept their commitments "and have reverted to past practices.

In an extraordinary moment of symmetrical political peril, the arrival ceremony brought together two men who are facing crises of confidence in their leadership, each of whom has reason to fear Clinton's impeachment, and just peoples who are fated to share this ure of that agreement could make violated with violence inevitably days later the Israeli parliament is land," peace was "the only choice Clinton look weak, Netanyahu has lead not to peace but to the con scheduled to hold a vote of confi- that can avert still more years of every reason not to see it through. dence in Netanyahu's government. bloodshed, In a brief, sober address, sorrow." apprehension and And the president risks further erosion in his congressional sup- tinuation and intensification ®f confliet." Clinton — who is traveling with Netanyahu shattered his sup- port if he is seen as leaning too With impeachment and his hard on the Israelis. stewardship of foreign affairs his wife, Hillary, and daughter, port on the right and jeopardized In his nine-minute remarks - linked in the minds of many mem.

Chelsea - expressed understand- his hold on office by cooperating ing of Israeli concerns. "We are three times as long as the presi- bers of Congress, Clinton is under with Clinton in October and dent's - Netanyahu warned, intense pressure to perform dur- determined that Israel's just agreeing to cede more land to the "Agreements not anchored in ing his three-day visit.

"Bill Clinton, welcome to Palestine' Clinton begins challenging diplomatic trip His visit is aimed at winning new commitments from both sides to carry out their obligations.

ASSOCIATED PRESS 3 TEL AVIV, Israel - As the impeachment drama unfolded back home, President Clinton opened a tough diplomatic mis- sion Saturday aimed at rescuing the Wye River peace accords from unraveling amid violence, political turmoil and mistrust. br The difficulty of Clinton's three-day visit was quickly under- scored as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harshly aceused Yasser Afafat's Palestinians of failing to meet their obligations under the Wye agreement. -Ri Netanyahu said the Palestin- ians must fulfill the pact "with deeds and not only with promises that all too often prove empty.

Then, speaking in Hebrew, Netan- yahu hardened his criticism. The prime minister said he could not accept "a phony peace on paper" which is "not honored it practice." He said the Palestin- ians in recent weeks have "constantly, systematically and intentionally violated all their cominitments.

We are not entitled, not able and not prepared to forgo fulfillment of those commitments." In reply, Clinton said peace- making has opened historic op- portunities to Israel "but each step forward has been tempered with pain and understandable feelings of ambivalence" over questions about whether agreements are be- ing fully implemented.

He said the United States shares Israel's concerns about se- curity. "At the same time," he said, "we believe that for two peoples who are fated to share this and, peace is not simply an option among many but the only choice that can avert still more years of bloodshed apprehension and sor- gow.

That is why I'm here." A trumpet fanfare and military Honor guard greeted Clinton and His wife, Hillary, at Ben Gurion International Airport, bathed in Boodlights for the near-midnight arrival. Netanyahu and members of his Cabinet — many of whom have expressed irritation or opposition ASSOCIATED PRESS American and Palestinian flags hang from a building Saturday in Gaza.

The flags will be hung along President Clinton's route Monday. to Clinton's visit — welcomed him respect the president....

We want with smiles and handshakes. to work with him as long as he is About two hours before Air the president and we will continue Force One landed, the House Ju- to work with him on this and many diciary Committee approved a other issues fourth article of impeachment Clinton's uncertain future is against Clinton. shared by Netanyahu, who is In the official U.S. delegation fighting for his political survival as on the trip were two senators and parliament prepares for a no con- 11 House members, including two fidence vote within two weeks.

His moderate Republicans uncommit- shaky coalition began to weaken ted on how they will vote: Reps. after he signed the Wye River ac- Rick Lazio of New York and Jon cord Oct. 23 agreeing to turn over Fox of Pennsylvania. territory in the West Bank to the Sen.

Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Palestinians in return for an end to it was important for the world to anti-Israeli violence. know that Clinton is still running Netanyahu has vowed to stop things and foreign policy is not further troop withdrawals until the crippled. violence ends.

There also is bitter *The presence of Republicans disagreement over procedures for on this trip is very important, Specter told reporters. "We revoking passages in the Palestin- ian charter calling for Israel's In Mideast, political also very personal Clinton seeks peace where there is no peace... destruction.

Clinton's three-day visit to the Holy Land is a diplomatic balanc-. ing act aimed at winning new In the small and jostling commitments from both sides to confines of what few here carry out their obligations under choose to call the Holy Land, the Wye agreement. the conflict touches all.

The president will spend today in Jerusalem, meeting with Netan- yahu and delivering a speech em- phasizing America's strong ties to Israel and an enduring commit- ment to its security. National Se- curity Adviser Sandy Berger said Clinton would argue that the Wye accord promotes both peace and security for Israel.

On Monday, the president will fly to the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip. Welcomed by Arafat with the trappings of a state visit, Clinton's stop is seen as a boost for dreams of Palestinian statehood.

The president will address the Pales- tinian National Council and other organizations after their affirma- tion of a decision to revoke the anti-israeli provisions of the Pal- estinian charter. On Tuesday, Clinton is sched- uled to visit Manger Square in Be- thlehem, the Palestinian- controlled West Bank town where tradition says Jesus was born.

The first family will tour the Church of the Nativity and the president will light a Christmas tree. His last stop will be at Masada, a hilltop fortress. Under siege by an army of 15,000 Romans, small group of Jews chose mass suicide rather than surrender. Moments before Air Force One landed, a group of right-wing demonstrators gathered outside Clinton's Jerusalem hotel.

An Is- raeli police spokeswoman said police asked the small group to leave, and that one demonstrator who refused was taken in for questioning. In Bethlehem, rock-throwing Palestinian protesters clashed with police and Israeli troops Saturday. Seven protesters were injured.

Palestinians strung a banner across the entrance to Bethlehem reading, *Bill Clinton, welcome to Palestine." ASSOCIATED PRESS JERUSALEM - On a street newly littered with the debris of battle - stones, spent tear gas canisters, charred remnants of tires - the house of mourning comes into view like a ship setting sail, its sodden Palestinian flag flapping in a fitful rain-laden wind.

Inside, to the tinny recorded wail of Koranic verses, neighbors and relatives of the dead man — a 21-year-old university student felled on the roof of his home by an Israeli soldier's rubber-coated bullet - sipped tiny cups of coffee left unsweetened to symbolize the bitter occasion.

Some smoked, a few spoke quietly among them- selves, but most simply sat in re- flective silence. Among those in attendance on this day, the first of the traditional three days of family mourning, was Saeb Erekat, the chief peace ne- gotiator for Yasser Arafat's Pales- tinian Authority. The dead youth, Nasr Erekat, was a cousin of his.

Erekat stayed for a time, sit- ting amid clan elders in Arab headdresses and teen-age neph- ews in American-style athletic shoes, then slipped away for a meeting about President Clinton's visit this weekend. "It's been very difficult," he said later, asked about carrying on his negotiating duties at such a time.

"I have a great sense of sor- row and sadness, a feeling of such loss.

I hope God will enable me to use my grief to strengthen my de- termination for peace." The scene at the Erekat home on Jerusalem's eastern outskirts drives home a central truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: on both sides of the divide, the political is also deeply personal. n And that goes to the heart of the quarrel.

In the glare of world attention, it is easy to forget that there are fewer people living in Israel and the Palestinian lands combined than there are in New York City. In the small and jostling confines of what few here choose to call the Holy Land, the conflict touches all.

Everyone has a stake in it. m Israelis fret daily over soldier sons on dangerous patrol in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or shudder when they pass a side- walk cafe once ripped by an Is- lamic militant's suicide bomb.

Palestinian families struggle to keep alive the memories of fa- thers and brothers languishing in Israeli prisons, and chafe under the checkpoints and gunsights of Israeli troops. On both sides, the youngest: soak up fear and anger along with their ABCs.

And elders' memories of half a century past still rise tol trouble the collective sleep: the shadow of the Holocaust for Is raelis, the trauma of exile and dist possession for the Palestinians.

Against this backdrop, amid a landscape little changed since biblical times, terrible Old Testa- ment themes - lamentation and retribution, the smiting of enemies and the sharpening of swords spring to life once again. In the mourning house in Abu Dis, the friends and relatives of Nasr Erekat had little to say about polities and statehood.

They talked about Nasr Erekat instead. Saeb Erekat, the peace nego- tiator, could find neither lesson nor logic to t ing cousin's death. "It's senseless, this rhythm of bloodshed." he said. "At these difficult times, you pray for one" thing, for both sides: no more of it." Now - Save $50

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"Peace mission tests the survival skills of Clinton, Netanyahu Clinton begins challenging diplomatic trip," Roanoke Times, 13 December 1998. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1998-015. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1998-015