Killings mar Clinton's last dash for Middle East peace

1:00 PM

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in a surge of violence that overshadowed U.S. President Bill Clinton's last dash to crown his eight years in the White House with a Middle East peace agreement.

Both Israelis and Palestinians remained deeply sceptical that a final deal could be reached either before Clinton ends his term in 15 days or before an Israeli prime ministerial vote on February 6 that could put the hawk Ariel Sharon in power.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Channel One television that negotiator Gilead Sher's main priority in Washington was to discuss ending the Palestinian uprising in which 301 Palestinians, 43 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed.

"Gilead Sher is there and...we are focusing on reducing the violence as our first priority because opposite the reservations of both sides it is not easy to believe we will reach an agreement in the next 10 days," Barak said.

But White House spokesman Jake Siewert said Clinton might also meet a Palestinian negotiator in the next few days.

"The president believes that it is critical that in his last days that he do everything he can to try to make his best effort to see whether we can put the parties in a place where they can begin to talk," Siewert said.

"But ultimately, it's up to the parties to make that decision."

Clinton is trying to get the two sides to revive stalled peace talks based on a blueprint he presented last month at the end of five days of negotiations.

He proposed the Palestinians give up on the right of refugees to return to their old homes inside Israel in exchange for sovereignty over parts of Jerusalem.

CIA Director George Tenet planned to leave on Saturday for Cairo to meet Palestinian and Israeli security officials to try to stop the weeks of fighting, a CIA official said.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath told Israel Channel Two television it was important talks continue.

"It's very hard...My thesis on this is really that we should continue without too much expectations," he said.

"What remains in time is very short and the matters are very complex and very difficult, but we should try, but not expect that we can arrive (at an agreement) by the 20th of January."

Israeli troops shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian woman in the divided West Bank city of Hebron this morning and a 37-year-old Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip overnight on Friday.

The 19-year-old, Arij Faber al-Jabali, was killed and an 18-year-old woman wounded in the chest when Israeli soldiers fired on their homes from the Beit Haggai Jewish settlement in Hebron, Palestinian hospital officials said.

The Israeli army said its troops had returned fire after Palestinian gunmen fired at the Jewish settlement. Palestinian witnesses said children had simply been playing with fireworks.

Israeli tank and machinegun fire resounded throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. At least 21 Palestinians were wounded.

The firing broke a three-day lull in which no deaths were reported, a rarity in the 14 weeks of sustained Palestinian protests against Israeli occupation.

The talks in Washington and the violence provided a backdrop to an Israeli election campaign kicking into high gear. Polls showed Barak trailing far behind his rightwing opponent Ariel Sharon, who could win the February ballot.

The rivals took to the television airwaves today to tout their peace and security plans.

Sharon is reviled by Arabs for master-minding Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and particularly by Palestinians for his role in the subsequent massacre of Palestinian civilians in Beirut's Sabra and Chatila refugee camps by rightwing Christian Lebanese militiamen allied to the Jewish state.

His visit in September to the Jerusalem shrine known by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif triggered the latest Palestinian uprising.

Sharon vowed not to hold peace talks while the violence continues.

"The public in Israel knows me...it knows I will bring peace, because I can bring peace, because I am committed to peace," Sharon told Israel Channel One television.

"Why do they (the Arabs) know they can negotiate with me? Because I mean what I say and I say what I mean. My no is no and my yes is yes," he added.

Barak, who appeared in a Channel One interview with Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres as his ally, slammed Sharon for not having a clear peace plan.

"The problems are very difficult...the difference between us and Ariel (Sharon) is that we are dealing with the problems, we aren't closing our eyes...we are trying to disarm the mines."

- REUTERS

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