Palestinian Interim Self Governing Authority

Away from the angry confrontations with Israeli troops, far from the stalled peace talks in Washington, a Palestinian government-in-waiting is taking shape on the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in anticipation of an end to Israeli occupation and eventual independence.

Away from the angry confrontations with Israeli troops, far from the stalled peace talks in Washington, a Palestinian government-in-waiting is taking shape on the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in anticipation of an end to Israeli occupation and eventual independence.

Sitting in the impoverished Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Tawfik Mabhouh was impatient with the slow-moving Arab-Israeli peace talks from which he hopes a Palestinian state will emerge--but philosophical about them, even optimistic. "Progress--there's not even been enough to spit at," Mabhouh said. "But look at the (North) Vietnamese talks with the Americans and the years it took to agree on the shape of the table.

Israel's dramatic deportation of more than 400 Palestinian political activists could lead to the country's first direct negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization, senior Israeli officials and strategic analysts said Friday. While making no apology for Israel's biggest expulsion of Palestinians outside wartime, they see a breakthrough, rather than a breakdown, ahead in the Arab-Israeli peace talks.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Monday renewed--in the most forthcoming terms yet--his country's offer to the Palestinians of virtual self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as soon as the basis for overall autonomy for the occupied territories is agreed upon.

With the Arab-Israeli negotiations at an impasse, the Clinton Administration is facing the tough question of how much political energy to invest in the unpromising search for peace in the Middle East. After a week of talks with Israel, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinians, U.S. special envoy Dennis Ross returned to Washington on Wednesday with differences on crucial issues still very wide--so wide that there were suggestions the U.S. mediation effort may have run its course.

"Mr. Jerusalem" for more than a quarter of a century, Mayor Teddy Kollek is now proving to be "Mr. Indispensable." Kollek, who will be 82 in May, had expected to slip into retirement at the end of last year, advising his successor on how to manage his treasured city but slowing his pace after 60 years of helping to build modern Israel.

French President Francois Mitterrand, bidding to make Paris an important channel in Middle East peace talks, urged Israel on Thursday to negotiate directly with the Palestine Liberation Organization and pledged in return that he would ask the PLO not to scorn Israel's proposals for Palestinian self-government.

Hoping to break the stalemate in negotiations with Israel on self-government, Palestinians plan to propose that Israel withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho and that local residents assume administration of the rest of the West Bank. Saeb Erekat, deputy leader of the Palestinian delegation to the Arab-Israeli peace talks, said Wednesday that the proposal will require a major compromise from Israel in creating a Palestinian ministate.

Israel's peace negotiators said Tuesday that they are ready to bargain with Palestinians over limited self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, despite a threat by two small right-wing parties to bring down Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's government as soon as autonomy talks begin.

Written in blood-red paint, the message on the wall of the mosque was a taunting battle cry: "To Fatah, the cowards and surrenderers: Where are your bullets, and why are they not aimed at the Israeli occupiers? Or are your targets the sons of our own people?" Signed by the Islamic Resistance Movement, the message was aimed at the Palestine Liberation Organization's mainstream Fatah group, and it appeared calculated to provoke further clashes between the two movements' supporters.