At least something is going right in troubled Gaza City. As PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher into his half-finished headquarters last week, he pointed to a bright spray of flowers adorning the conference table that had been produced by a new greenhouse venture. "We export them to Holland," Arafat said with obvious pride.
The Palestinian leader will have to succeed at more than growing flowers if the increasingly wobbly Mideast peace process is to stay on track. The Israeli public, unnerved by Islamic fundamentalist terrorist attacks that have killed more than 70 Israelis this year and by tough rhetoric from Syrian President Hafez Assad over the return of the strategic Golan Heights, is having serious second thoughts about the wisdom of moving ahead. And Arafat's authority is under fire from the fundamentalists and a Palestinian public impatient for the economic and social fruits of peace.
The growing doubts threatened to pull the red carpet out from under Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minster Shimon Peres, even as they traveled to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize for their accord. Just 34 percent of Israelis questioned in a recent Gallup Poll thought Rabin and Peres should go to Norway to accept the award.
Grudging support. Before Israel will agree to keep the peace process moving toward extending Palestinian self-rule throughout the West Bank, Arafat must put a stop to terrorist attacks against Israelis that originate from areas already under his control. The Rabin government, which grudgingly reaffirmed its support of the peace process last week, is balking at redeploying Israeli defense forces away from Palestinian population centers - - a key provision of the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian accord -- before Palestinian elections. Some Israelis warn that even a temporary withdrawal would make it impossible for Israeli troops to return later to protect the 120,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank. Palestinians charge that Israel's refusal to redeploy would violate the agreement.
Arafat has acknowledged Israel's security concerns but is reluctant to confront Hamas, whose militant faction is heavily armed. He has indicated that Hamas members who eschew violence can participate in elections, but if the Islamic group makes a strong showing at the polls, it will jeopardize Arafat's standing and could cause Israel to halt the peace process.
While Arafat at least appears to be making an effort to shore up the peace process, Syria's snail-paced diplomacy is frustrating U.S. and Israeli officials. After they met with Assad for four and a half hours in Damascus last week, Christopher and his aides could only repeat their now familiar mantra that "the gaps are narrowing" over the Golan giveback and other issues. At the end of the week, Syria did agree to resume open contacts with Israel -- which had been continuing quietly in Washington despite the sour diplomatic climate -- on the framework for a peace package.
But hard bargaining on the Golan is now expected to continue for months, and U.S. and Israeli officials believe it is crucial for Assad to make a public gesture that will help reassure Rabin's fracturing peace coalition. Christopher pressed Assad last week to publicly renounce terrorism, which President Clinton had expected Assad to do during the U.S. president's visit to Damascus in October. When Assad complained to Christopher that he had been prepared to make a statement during Clinton's visit but had been put off by a hostile news conference question, the normally placid Christopher vented his irritation: "Sometimes you have to learn how to give the right answer to the wrong question," he shot back. If the peace process is to survive, all sides are going to have to start finding the right answers soon.
