WASHINGTON — The Clinton administration has a simple message for the Israelis: The peace process must move ahead without delay.
As soon as Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak forms his coalition, the State Department plans to execute a Middle East plan that has been carefully crafted during the last five months of stalemate — since Israel began its election campaign.
“I will continue to work energetically for a just, lasting and comprehensive peace that strengthens Israel’s security,” President Clinton said, moments after his congratulatory phone call to Barak.
Clinton declared that “the people of Israel have given the new prime minister a strong mandate.”
Observers expect relations between Washington and Jerusalem to improve from what has come to be known as Clinton’s policy of “snub diplomacy.” Clinton, who had repeatedly refused to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saw Arafat on two occasions and met with top figures from Israel’s Labor and Center parties.
The president did speak to Netanyahu by phone this week to “thank him for his dedicated service to Israel.”
Barak, who enjoys good relations with the Pentagon from his days as the Israeli army chief of staff, has also developed solid ties with the White House during meetings with Clinton and top administration officials.
The Clinton administration, whose preference for Barak was no secret, made it clear even before the election that it wanted to see progress on the political front.
With that in mind, the next few months will see a number of steps to advance the peace process, U.S. officials say.
The administration’s plan includes:
*Immediate calls for full implementation of the Wye accords.
*Direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians without U.S. mediation.
*Opening final-status talks with a goal of completing an agreement in one year.
*A three-way summit within six months hosted by President Clinton.
*A new push with Lebanon and Syria to start direct talks with Israel.
“There is no acceptable alternative to the pursuit of peace,” said Dennis Ross, the chief U.S. Middle East negotiator.
The administration’s push comes at a critical time for Middle East peace.
Earlier this month, the Palestinians and Israelis missed the most significant deadline with the Oslo framework. By May 4, they were supposed to have resolved the “final status” of the most sensitive issues, including Palestinian statehood, Jerusalem, borders and Palestinian refugees.
Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat backed down from threats to unilaterally declare statehood on May 4, only after the European Union promised to support such a declaration if a negotiated solution is not found.
On Wednesday, a senior aide to Arafat announced that the Palestinians will now declare a state by the end of the year.
With so much at stake, the United States is hoping for major breakthroughs.
“I’m hopeful both sides will engage on substance,” said Martin Indyk, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.
Clinton apparently believes that the path to peace lies in the pages of October’s Wye accord.
The agreement produced a 12-week timetable that married specific Palestinian steps to crack down on terrorism with Israeli redeployments from the West Bank.
The Palestinians agreed, among other things, to clamp down on terrorists, seize illegal weapons, move to stop incitement and amend the Palestinian Covenant, which called for Israel’s destruction.
In exchange, Israel agreed, among other things, to withdraw from 13 percent of the West Bank in three stages and open a safe-passage route for Palestinians traveling between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Implementation of the three-phase accord froze after the first four weeks.
“On the Palestinian side, we have seen serious efforts to prevent terror strikes, to renounce the Palestinian covenant and to avoid a unilateral declaration of statehood,” Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said recently. “On the Israeli side, implementation has stalled.”
According to U.S. officials, the White House wants to restart the timeline of the Wye accords shortly after Barak forms a new government and his cabinet is in place.
Observers expect Ross to travel to the region as early as next month to work toward this goal.
While the Israelis and Palestinians are implementing their past obligations, the United States also wants the two sides to engage in final-status negotiations with the “objective” of completing them within one year, Albright said.
U.S. officials further hope that the Palestinians and Israelis will begin negotiating with each other without U.S. mediation.
Since the 1997 Hebron agreement, which transferred rule over the West Bank city to the Palestinians, the two sides have been unable to conduct serious policy talks without help from U.S. officials.
This has been a major source of concern for State Department officials, who have had to step in to resolve the most basic issues, officials said.
Ross recalled an incident last year when Israel and the Palestinian Authority immediately turned to him to resolve a “relatively minor” dispute over a road in Gaza.
Both sides urgently called Ross in Washington, who said Ross “had to step in…They should have been able to solve this themselves.” But during stalemates, he said, the sides “lose the capacity to resolve differences.”
Even if the two sides begin direct talks, U.S. officials have no illusions that the process will be easy.
In fact, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters this week that the Palestinians “don’t expect an easy ride” from Barak.
“But,” he added, “there is a difference between a tough negotiator and a non-negotiator.”