Clinton Ponders Options To Put Mideast Peace Efforts On Track

Amid tough Israeli rhetoric and more violent clashes with Palestinians Thursday, President Clinton has yet to decide how to proceed with Middle East peace efforts and is still in a stage of “consulting the parties,” White House officials said Thursday.

State Department officials, concerned about the appearance of a lack of direction or strategy, said Thursday the primary U.S. goal now is to restore confidence between Israel and Palestinians to allow a resumption of the peace talks.

They said Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will “not bludgeon” any party “into making peace” but are urging them “to make the fundamental decisions that peace is better than conflict.”

“This is steadiness in a crisis, rather than a failure to have a strategy,” said a senior State Department aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Not all observers agreed. “What is required is strong, bold American leadership,” said Judith Kipper, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank. “This is a massive crisis. The United States should be leading, not following.”

The most important upcoming event is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hurriedly scheduled White House visit Monday, but there seemed little expectation here that he will bring a major concession leading to a rapid resumption of peace talks.

Ideas now circulating for a Camp David-style summit or an urgent get-together of Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are not coming from Washington, the officials said, indicating that they are coming from Israel.

However, State Department officials said that after talks between Albright and Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai, there is hope for a resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks on security issues even before Netanyahu flies here.

The president plans to question Netanyahu at length about his suggestion for a six-month deadline in the next and final phase of Israeli-Palestinian talks, the final status of Jerusalem, U.S. officials said. Before flying here, Netanyahu will visit Jordan’s King Hussein, who will be convalescing at the Mayo Clinic after prostate surgery.

Some Israeli sources said Netanyahu is willing to commit himself to putting a hold on housing construction starts similar to the one under way on the edge of East Jerusalem.

But U.S. officials said that alone would be insufficient to restore Palestinian confidence in the process. Officials said Israel should take additional steps such as opening the Gaza airport and other road traffic, as well as building Palestinian housing in the same part of Jerusalem as Netanyahu had publicly promised to do.

As for Netanyahu’s proposal to hold six months of non-stop talks on the final status of Jerusalem, Clinton will “explore how serious this is, and what sort of discipline the parties will impose on themselves,” in order to reach a successful conclusion, a White House aide said.

Rejecting demands to halt construction of new Jewish housing in the outskirts of traditionally Arab East Jerusalem, which prompted the latest crisis, Netanyahu Thursday told supporters Israel “will continue to build in Har Homa, Jerusalem and in (West Bank communities in) Judea and Samaria.”