-Caveat Lector-
Barak makes impassioned plea to Arafat to end violence
By JACK KATZENELL
The Associated Press
11/4/00 6:30 PM
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made an
impassioned plea to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Saturday to return
to the negotiating table and stop the Palestinian-Israeli bloodshed for the
sake of peace.
"I call on Yasser Arafat: Don't let the radicals lead you along the path of
pain and suffering for both peoples. You are able to stop the deterioration
and bloodshed," Barak said to the applause of more than 50,000 Israelis at a
peace rally commemorating the fifth anniversary of the assassination of
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
"From here, tonight, now I call on you to put an end to violence and stretch
your hand to peace of the brave, of respecting and implementing agreements,"
he said.
It was Barak's first such appeal to Arafat since Israeli-Palestinian
violence broke out more than five weeks ago. The violence has claimed close
to 170 lives, most of them Palestinian, in the worst bloodshed since the
sides began peace talks in 1993.
In an excerpt from an interview conducted Wednesday in Gaza that will air
Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes," Arafat rejected the claim that he could
effectively stop the bloodshed, saying Israel is to blame.
Meanwhile, the violence showed some signs of abating after President Clinton
called the warring sides' leaders to Washington for talks in a bid to end
the bloodshed. Both Barak and Arafat accepted the invitations for separate
meetings, most likely to be held next weekend, officials said Saturday.
Barak, surrounded by guards, addressed Israeli peace supporters who flocked
to the rally to remember Rabin, the warrior who led his nation to accept the
inevitability of peace with the Palestinians.
The demonstration on the former Kings of Israel Square in downtown Tel Aviv,
now Rabin Square, was meant to send a strong message that Rabin's dream was
not killed by the recent bloodshed.
Many in the huge crowd were young people, some of them sitting on the ground
in circles around burning candles. Naama Litvak, 17, said she and her
friends miss Rabin.
"It is a personal loss that we feel," she said.
During a similar peace rally exactly five years ago, Rabin was shot at that
very spot by a Jewish ultranationalist who opposed his course of trading
land for peace. Now, amid the violence, many are questioning Rabin's legacy
while others say negotiations are the only choice.
"We really don't know the way. We are one country but two people, Israelis
and Arabs," said 49-year-old teacher Gafen Dolev-Doha, while memorial
candles flickered around her at the square. "Rabin went a long way of war
and blood but then thought, maybe there is another, better way."
On Saturday, Arafat said he had some problems with the date for the Clinton
meeting -- Nov. 9, said his spokesman Nabil Aburdeneh. He said Clinton
expressed sorrow over Palestinian victims in the conflict and stated his
desire to advance the peace process.
Barak told the rally he was likely to travel to Washington at the end of
next week "to try to bring about stability and relaxation" of the violence.
Arafat, meanwhile, lashed out at Israel for supposed violations of the
latest cease-fire deal and said he wanted the United States to push Israel
into compliance.
"We want the Americans to push Israel into implementing what has been agreed
upon," he told reporters in Gaza. "Israel was supposed to immediately lift
the closures of Palestinian cities, lift the siege and reopen the (Gaza)
airport. I'm sorry to say that until this minute the siege has not been
lifted."
The sides so far have concluded several cease-fire deals, including one
brokered by Clinton in Egypt, that were violated as soon as they were
announced. The latest one was agreed upon Thursday by Arafat and former
Israeli premier Shimon Peres, Rabin's longtime rival and comrade-in-arms.
Both sides have issued calls for restraint. Although the momentum generated
by daily clashes proved hard to stop and Palestinian territories were far
from quiet, Israeli reports noted a "certain relaxation" in the scope of the
violence.
On Saturday, a Palestinian girl was shot in the head when passing
stone-throwing youths on her way home from school near the West Bank town of
Hebron. Doctors said 14-year-old Kazala Jaradat was critically wounded with
live fire; the Israeli army said its troops only used rubber-coated steel
bullets in the clash.
By midday Saturday, more than 60 Palestinians had received light to moderate
wounds in clashes across the West Bank and Gaza. However, Israel's army
command reported only a handful of shooting attacks on Israeli troops
reported.
That was a significant change from the preceding days -- the three soldiers
killed in clashes Wednesday, the car bomb that killed two Israelis in
Jerusalem Thursday and the three Palestinians shot dead Friday amid a spate
of firefights.
Still, top Palestinian
