Middle East Talks Sliding Backward

Seven weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed to launch an urgent effort to conclude the transfer of Hebron to the Palestinians and push forward on broader peace, negotiations have ground tensely to a halt.

Though the two sides continue to meet on the Hebron issue, diplomats close to the talks say they are not moving forward and actually are sliding backward as positions on both sides harden.

The torrent of Israeli hints that an agreement is imminent on an Israeli withdrawal from most of Hebron - a West Bank city where several hundred Israeli settlers live among an Arab population - has ceased. Instead, on Wednesday, Netanyahu ordered the army to bring furniture back into the military headquarters in Hebron, which the military command had vacated efficiently and had painted in anticipation of redeployment.

Netanyahu’s order followed complaints from right-wing deputies that the army was moving out before an agreement was reached.