Security chiefs thrash out timetable for peace
Israeli and Palestinian security commanders were meeting to try to agree on the next steps in the shaky US-sponsored truce, but each side expressed suspicions about the actions and intentions of the other.
The security chiefs talked into the early hours of today, one of a series of sessions to discuss fundamental differences over the ceasefire negotiated last week by US Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet, aimed at ending nearly nine months of violence.
The Palestinians said Israel should lift travel restrictions and roadblocks and pull out its troops and heavy equipment within two weeks. Israel said that the redeployment would take four weeks, but would not even begin until all Palestinian violence stops.
The Palestinian Cabinet yesterday repeated its commitment to the ceasefire but said Israel was endangering the truce because of its refusal to lift restrictions.
The Palestinian leadership also claimed ‘‘continuous settler attacks’’ were part of a plan ‘‘under the protection of the Israeli army’’.
A Palestinian official said his side was running out of patience. He said if a timetable was not agreed soon, the Palestinians might abandon the Tenet truce plan.
Israeli settlers from the West Bank and their backers were also exasperated by the Tenet programme, but for the opposite reasons. Demonstrating in Jerusalem and shouting down a government official during a funeral for a settler killed in a Palestinian shooting, they clamoured for an end to the ceasefire, so Israel could hit back at the Palestinians.
But Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit said violence had ‘‘dropped significantly’’ since the ceasefire took effect and defended the government decision not to retaliate.
‘‘I can understand the pain and anger of the people,’’ he said, but responsible decisions must be made, not based on ‘‘feelings of revenge or anger or fury or anything else’’.
