Source:
Electronic Telegraph-UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Cheney shatters Clinton push for peace in Israel
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=002155866705905&rtmo=lvlHFzzt&atmo=rv0sMw0s&pg=/et/00/12/18/wmid18.html

ISSUE 2033
Monday 18 December 2000

By Patrick Bishop in Jerusalem

AN attempt to salvage a Middle East peace deal in the dying days of the
Clinton presidency appeared seriously undermined last night as the incoming

administration said recent American diplomacy had hindered a settlement.

Israeli and Palestinian delegations are expected to go to Washington this
week to try to find common ground that could pave the way for a peace
summit. Both sides are due to hold separate talks with American officials
in the first serious attempt to resume negotations, which have been in
abeyance since the Palestinian uprising erupted in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip at the end of September.

The already slim chances of success were reduced further yesterday when
Vice-President-elect Dick Cheney voiced the incoming administration's
"concerns that the way the Clinton administration operated in the [last]
year or so in the Middle East has made it more difficult to reach a
settlement".

He singled out the decision to put the future of Jerusalem, one of the most
intractable of the many issues under negotiation, at the centre of the
failed summit at Camp David last July. He made it clear that the Bush
presidency had its own ideas about how to "regenerate" the peace process,
which he said had now broken down.

On the face of it, the parties have an interest in reaching agreements
before President Clinton steps down on January 20. Ehud Barak was eager to
strike a deal that would allow him to show substantial progress in building
peace with the Palestinians in advance of an election for prime minister in
early February which on current form he is expected to lose.

Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, had the choice of doing business
with Mr Barak or waiting until after the poll, which in the absence of a
peace breakthrough seems certain to result in a hardliner at the Israeli helm.
Yesterday he said he was willing to meet Mr Barak to talk peace.

Mr Clinton was anxious to see some results from a process which had
absorbed much of his energy since he decided to try to forge a solid Middle
East settlement as his lasting presidential legacy. That hope would now
seem to be unrealistic following Mr Cheney's intervention.

Despite the peace rumblings blood continued to flow yesterday with Israeli
soldiers shooting dead Iyad Daoud, 27, and Ahmed Al-Kassas, 38, in the Gaza
Strip near the border with Egypt. Palestinians said they had been going to
the rescue of another man who had been shot and wounded.
The army said they had returned fire after coming under attack.

A leader of Mr Arafat's Fatah group was killed in a mysterious explosion at
the Kalandiya refugee camp near Jerusalem. Fatah officials said Sami
Mala'b eh,
28, was the latest victim of an Israeli assassination campaign against
activists.
The army had no official comment about the incident.