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One Week Ahead Of Israeli Poll, Talk Emerges Of Mideast Summit
JERUSALEM, Jan 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - With only a week to go before the Israeli election that Prime Minister Ehud Barak is almost certain to lose, Israel and the Palestinians raised the possibility Tuesday of new moves on the stagnant peace front with international efforts to set up a summit.
"International figures are continuing their efforts to try to organize a meeting [between Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat]," Barak's chief of staff Gilad Sher told Israeli army radio.
"At this moment, it wouldn't be smart to reject out of hand something this important and crucial."
Barak had been hoping to take a peace deal to voters at the February 6th election for prime minister, but he suspended peacemaking on Sunday after the failure of six days of intensive negotiations in Egypt.
Latest opinion polls show him still trailing far behind his right-wing rival, Ariel Sharon, once written off as a potential leader because of his role as defense minister in the ill-fated 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
A Palestinian official said United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was trying to organize an Arafat-Barak summit, which would be their first direct meeting since the outbreak of deadly violence in the region four months ago.
"In principle we don't reject any meeting between Arafat and Barak," said Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, adding, "There could be a summit before the election. It could be anywhere."
"Even though we are very close to the Israeli election we are anxious to continue until the last moment to exhaust all possible chances of progress in the peace process," he told Voice of Palestine radio.
Israeli media reports said a summit could take place in Egypt under the auspices of President Hosni Mubarak, who held talks with Arafat Monday.
In Stockholm, Annan expressed optimism about the latest negotiations in the Egyptian resort of Taba, even though the two sides failed to clinch any deal on the thorniest issues dividing them, including Jerusalem and refugees.
"I'm very encouraged, and I hope that as soon as the elections are over they can go back" to the negotiating table, he said. "From the reports I have received, both parties worked very seriously, constructively and we are very close to resolving the issues."
The Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported that Barak, who turned down a meeting with Arafat this week, had had a change of heart after the Palestinian leader's "conciliatory" comments in a rare interview with Israeli television Monday.
In the interview, Arafat said that he was still ready for talks and that the sides had made progress at negotiations in Taba, Egypt, last week.
Arafat, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, had lashed out at Israel, accusing it of "fascist military aggression," a jibe which the U.S. State Department said had no place in the peace process.
Arafat had accused Israel of using uranium-tipped ordnance in its "savage and barbaric war" against Palestinians, and for shooting Palestinians with anti-tank missiles, tanks, assault helicopters, machine guns and uranium-tipped ammunition. In his speech, Arafat also said that Barak's government really did not desire peace.
But on Monday, Arafat said peace efforts had to be pursued despite negotiators failing to hammer out an accord at Taba, in talks that ended Saturday.
However, any peace progress ahead of the ballot is likely be of little help now to Barak, who trails Sharon by a massive 20 points, according to latest opinion polls.
Arafat on Monday refused to take sides, saying: "I don't interfere in Israeli business."
But Abed Rabbo called on Arab Israelis - Palestinians who remained inside Israel after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 - to help Barak by not casting blank ballots, as many in the one-million strong community have threatened in a protest over the death of 13 Israeli Arabs.
However, the constant violence, which heated up again Monday after a lull of several days with the killing of a Jewish settler and a Palestinian, has served only to help Sharon, now campaigning under the slogan "Mr. Security".
An economic slowdown has also damaged Barak, as well as a nationwide strike that has left heaps of rotting garbage on the streets, further contributing to the conviction of many Israelis that their leadership needs to change.
The strike by Israel's union federation, Histadrut, which has also disrupted air traffic and left sea ports idle, is however, expected to wind down following a tentative agreement with the government on pay demands reached Tuesday.
A Gallup poll showed that Barak needs all the help he can muster, with only 32% of Israelis supporting him, compared with 52% for Sharon.
In yet another indication that many Israelis believe Barak is seeing his final days in office, 77% said they expected Sharon to win against 11% for Barak.
On the ground Tuesday, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and critically injured when Israeli soldiers opened fire on a group of stone-throwing youths in the Gaza Strip, hospital sources said.
And the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas claimed responsibility for an attempted bomb attack near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim using a explosives-packed donkey cart that the army later blew up.
"It is important to note that it died because of the explosives that the Palestinians put there. We did not shoot the donkey," an army spokeswoman said.
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