Redeployment could alter US role

By HILLEL KUTTLER

Gone for good, they hope, are the midnight phone calls from Israeli and Palestinian officials over every dispute that arose.

The indispensable US role in pushing the feuding Israelis and Palestinians toward peace - occurring uninterrupted since the 1996 negotiations leading to the Hebron Accord - is about to change for the better.

As one senior American official described it Friday, "we're in a different world. ... We are back to being an intermediary, not a mediator."

The redeployment alone did not represent the shift. So did the month leading up to it, begun at the nine-day Wye River negotiations. And the payoff was not only the two sides implementing the Wye deal, but also their building a cooperative relationship of direct problem-solving.

The Netanyahu government and the Palestinians never had the luxury of retreating to privacy and expounding on their mutual needs, in a way that the Oslo architects did.

While not idealizing the Oslo experience, the US official underlined the importance of the Israelis and Palestinians participants there getting their doubts and angst out in the open.

"What Wye did... was it created such an intensive immersion that it created a relationship between the two sides. This [Netanyahu] government inherited a relationship but never really developed a relationship. They have now.

"That relationship gives a chance to solve problems. That relationship is critical, not only for implementation but... for final-status [negotiations]," the official said.

When disputes arose post-Wye - over the PLO Charter, prisoner releases, arrest of terrorist suspects - "they talked it out" and "resolved to go forward," he said.

"There will be bumps in the road. That is a given. But the more they see each other operating in good faith, the more you'll find they come to appreciate the problems, limitations and interests of the other."

Which is not to say that their mutual suspicions evaporated. But with a working arrangement between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat finally in place, and with both sides' continued implementation of their commitments over the three-month process, the US believes that those suspicions will gradually decline.

American officials say they will continue playing a "cooperative role" and are not sanguine about the difficulties ahead, as the PA continues its crackdown on terrorism and Israel proceeds with the next two phases of redeploying from the West Bank.

The three-day, Israeli-Palestinian war of words early last week is not what the US wants to see. But Washington is encouraged by the actions, which are occurring almost on schedule.

"The relationship now has shallow roots. You have to have implementation continue in a way that the relationship and the roots become deeper. You certainly have a turning point," the official said.

"Doubt and suspicion put a premium on implementation. Implementation that is real without a serious approach to final-status [talks] will rekindle suspicions on both sides. But here you have the emergence of a potential for a different relationship. You have turned a page."

Asked whether the US is now headed back to its pre-Hebron role of guiding but not leading, the official said: "Yes. In the past week our role was a supportive role, not a mediating role. Every problem that cropped up, they talked to each other, not to us. That's healthy."

Washington "will play it by ear" on gauging when or if it needs to jump back in, the official said, and "you have to go through a process that takes into account the psychology of the two sides as well.

"In a very interesting way, both sides see a comfort level in us being involved. What we're trying to get away from is 'when you have a problem, call us.'"

Headlines

• Redeployment could alter US role
• IDF wraps up Wye's first stage today
• First Wye pullout to end by tomorrow
• Settlers scurry to limit pullout threat
• IDF poised to implement first Wye transfer
• Wye redeployment begins today
• PM confident he can sell Wye
• Netanyahu flies to capital to avoid protesters
• Right outraged at Wye signing, Left skeptical
• PA officials pleased, extremists reject accord
• Settler leaders weigh next steps
• US Jewish leaders hail accord

• What's in the accord?

• Text of The Wye Memorandum

• Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech
• PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's speech

• A patchy deal can easily unravel
• Strained relations
• Clinton deserves praise for job well done
• Wye deal to launch final talks
• Netanyahu turns centrist, but still faces Right
• Now for the tough part
• REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Reflections on Wye

• EDITORIAL: A tardy first step
• The next stage

• Sources: There was a tacit deal to release Pollard
• A Pollard chronology
• Pollard's father disappointed that Israel 'caved in' over release