Barak Gambles On Fast Track To Mideast Peace Israeli Leader Sets Timetable For Breakthrough

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak wrapped up a remarkable five-day visit to the United States on Monday, pledging to seek a breakthrough in the stalled Middle East peace process within 15 months.

Such a specific timetable is a gamble for Barak because if the deadline is not met, he will be seen to have failed and the promise of peace will seem unfulfilled. But Barak apparently is calculating that he can generate momentum toward peace that will be hard to reverse and perhaps will pressure his negotiating partners to take bold steps.

Barak said he was making the unusual declaration so Palestinians, Syrians and others in the Middle East will be on the same general timetable.

“I don’t think you should interpret this 15-month framework as a kind of a deadline where everything should be either fully concluded and implemented or the whole thing is blown apart,” Barak said.

Rather, he said, he is sending a signal that “we are not talking about a miraculous solution, a magic solution, that will drop upon us from heaven in three weeks - (but) we do not intend to drag our feet for another three years.”

Barak’s statement, during a joint news conference with President Clinton, capped the new prime minister’s first visit to the United States.

During the trip he gave every sign that he intends to push forward with the peace process frozen by his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Barak promised to implement the Wye River accord, signed last year, which commits Israel to returning 13 percent of the occupied West Bank to the Palestinians. Netanyahu had halted the transfer. Barak also told Clinton that Israel was ready to make “painful compromises” on another patch of Israeli-occupied territory, the Golan Heights to make peace with Syria.

As if in response to Barak’s initiative, Syrian leaders reportedly urged Palestinian guerrilla groups based in their country Monday to cease their armed struggle against Israel, telling them Syria intends to make peace with the Israelis soon. Members of those groups quickly denied those reports, but Barak welcomed them.

“If there was such a meeting and the Syrians really asked the terror organizations to reduce their level of activity, it is of course good news,” he said.

By coming to Washington within two weeks of taking office, Barak signaled the priority he puts on re-establishing a close relationship between Israel and the United States, a relationship that was badly frayed under Netanyahu.

Clinton declared his intent to increase military aid to Israel by one-third over the next decade, to $2.4 billion, as economic aid is phased out.