Middle East Peace

The enactment of new penalties against foreign firms investing in Iran or Libya will heat an already simmering quarrel between America and our closest allies. President Clinton, who signed this legislation Monday, is likely to slow its implementation just as he suspended similiar new measures aimed at Cuba. But that leaves only a short time to avert a rupture over the issue of secondary boycotts against rogue regimes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet voted unanimously Friday to ease a four-year freeze on settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip--a move almost certain to increase the Jewish population in the occupied territories while complicating Israel's peace talks with the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accusing his predecessor and rival, Shimon Peres, of undermining the peace process by meeting with Arab leaders. Peres' "quasi-diplomatic activities were encouraging the Palestinian side to be more intransigent," Netanyahu spokesman David Bar-Illan said Wednesday, accusing Peres of "panic mongering." "We have no objection to Peres meeting Arab leaders," Bar-Illan said.

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, visibly angry, accused the Israeli government Wednesday of having "declared war" on Palestinians through recent actions such as demolishing Arab-owned buildings in Jerusalem and expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Just two months into Benjamin Netanyahu's term as Israel's prime minister, Israelis and Arabs alike say they fear that the deadlocked Middle East peace process may collapse. After Israel and Syria traded angry accusations this week, with each side blaming the other for heightened tensions, Israeli politicians and columnists--for the first time in years--are speaking openly about the possibility of renewed war with Syria.

In an apparent attempt to goad Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into meeting with Yasser Arafat, Israeli President Ezer Weizman announced Sunday that he will soon hold a summit of his own with the Palestinian leader.

The Israeli army has drawn up a secret multimillion-dollar plan to build more than 300 miles of roads throughout the occupied West Bank, Israel Radio reported Thursday.

Syrian President Hafez Assad apparently has cut off Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bid to buy peace with the Arab world at a price cheaper than what his predecessors were willing to pay. While unsurprising, the rejection this week raises troubling questions about what happens to the peace process now. Will Netanyahu, Israel's new hard-line leader, retreat from his recent campaign positions and make difficult choices for Israel that could push the peace process forward?

Arab leaders hinted Sunday at a break in relations with Israel if its new conservative government retreats from the negotiating principle of "land for peace." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired back that their "one-sided demands" would be harmful to the peace process. The exchange that followed the first pan-Arab summit in six years showed that Arabs and Israelis remain far apart in their perceptions.

Leaders of Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia opened a third round of talks today in Damascus to plot strategy on the Middle East peace process after the election of hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel's prime minister. The talks were focusing on ways to resume peace negotiations and the possibilities of holding the first broad Arab summit in nearly six years.