Heading toward a showdown with Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu derided a U.S. proposal for an Israeli troop pullback from 13 percent of the West Bank, saying Monday that it endangers Israel’s security.
Netanyahu’s critics lambasted the prime minister for needlessly straining Israel’s ties with its closest ally, noting he has agreed to pull out from 9 percent of the territory.
The Palestinians, who hope for much more than the U.S. proposal would give them, still appeared to back it hesitantly.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been deadlocked for about a year. Israel and the Palestinians, who have complete or partial control over 27 percent of the West Bank, cannot agree on the dimensions of promised further pullouts from the territory.
The United States reportedly has proposed a gradual withdrawal from 13.1 percent of the West Bank over 12 weeks, with each pullback met by Palestinian security gestures.
President Clinton’s Mideast envoy, Dennis Ross, was to come to the region this week to brief Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the plan, under which talks on a final peace agreement would begin toward the end of the withdrawal.
State Department spokesman James Foley said in Washington that Ross would leave Wednesday evening and would meet with Netanyahu and Arafat.
Foley declined to give details of the U.S. proposals and would not be drawn on whether the administration might make them public, which Netanyahu has urged Washington not to do.
“We believe Ambassador Ross’ visit is critical to where we go next,” Foley said.
Israeli newspapers reported that Netanyahu pressed Clinton in two telephone calls not to make the U.S. initiative public.
The Israeli daily Yediot Ahranoth said Clinton agreed to delay publication of the plan at least until Ross’ visit.
Foley said Monday: “I know this issue of going public or not going public has certainly garnered a lot of attention in the media, and I really can’t address that today.”
On Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet rejected the U.S. proposal, but Monday marked the first time Netanyahu explained in detail why he is turning down the U.S. initiative.
“Israel is a tiny country, and every piece of territory here is tied to security,” Netanyahu said after speaking to parliament’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee.
“You can very quickly reach a situation in which you endanger the security of the state, and I will not (do it),” he said.
Netanyahu added that he expected Washington to understand that only Israel could determine its security needs: “I don’t think there can be total coordination with the United States because the view from the Potomac is not the view from the Jordan.”
Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai said “the numbers the Americans are using . . . will harm (Israel’s) security and national interests.”
The committee meeting was so stormy that a recess had to be called to cool tempers.
Opposition leader Ehud Barak complained Netanyahu was endangering Israel by wrecking ties with the United States.
“The United States is not an enemy, it is our closest friend, and because of political amateurishness, we are being led down the slippery slope in a way that can only hurt our real security needs,” Barak said.
Earlier Monday, Palestinian officials said the U.S. proposal falls short of expectations because it allows Israel to scrap one of three phases of a troop pullback to which it had committed itself last year in a U.S.-backed agreement.
“We welcome any U.S. initiative that will push the peace process forward, but our position is that any initiative has to include three phases of redeployment,” said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, the secretary general of the Palestinian Cabinet.
Palestinian officials were careful not to reject the American plan outright.
