Envoy Tries To Revive Peace As Arab Nations Ponder Boycott Of Israel

As U.S. envoy Dennis Ross flew to Israel Thursday to try to save an unraveling peace process, 15 Islamic foreign ministers gathered in Morocco to debate calls for a freeze in economic relations with Israel until it stops new Jewish housing construction in East Jerusalem.

Even friendly Arab nations such as Egypt and Jordan would be called upon to halt business with Israel under a draft resolution prepared in the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision last week to start building the new housing project.

At an important pan-Arab summit held in Cairo, Egypt, last June, Arab leaders went on record to support the peace process but warned that if the then newly elected Netan yahu abandoned the “land-for-peace” principle, there would be a corresponding withdrawal on the Arab side.

Nine months later, Arab governments say they have lost faith in Netanyahu’s commitment to peace; meanwhile, they are under mounting pressure from their populations to move beyond verbal protests and take steps to isolate Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat was in the Moroccan capital for the summit, a meeting of the 15-member Jerusalem Committee of the Islamic Conference Organization, that was called to debate a united Arab response. The meeting was chaired by Morocco’s King Hassan, who in the past has been friendly toward Israel.

Ross spent two hours with Arafat there, delivering a letter from President Clinton whose contents were not disclosed and taking in the Palestinian leader’s views of the current crisis. Then he flew to Israel, where a meeting was scheduled at around midnight at the Jerusalem home of Netanyahu.

In Washington, Clinton said Ross was “encouraged” by his talks with Arafat. But the president declined to elaborate.