Israel's Defence Minister and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's deputy held their first direct talks in Tel Aviv yesterday, as a failed car-bombing in central Jerusalem underlined the potential for bloodshed between the two sides.
The defence minister, Mr Yitzhak Mordechai, and Mr Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) met at the request of the increasingly frustrated US peace brokers, to try and reach a deal on the next, overdue Israeli withdrawal from occupied West Bank land. They made no major breakthrough, but said they would continue high-level contacts.
Mr Mordechai said they had a broad exchange of views and would meet again "often," also announcing the creation of several work groups to discuss the major disputed issues.
Mr Arafat has already accepted an American proposal for a 13 per cent Israeli pull-out; Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, is balking.
Mr Netanyahu said yesterday that Mr Mordechai had all the necessary authority to cut a deal with Mr Abbas. But since Israel has issued a long list of preconditions for any further withdrawal, the portents for last night's talks had not been not good.
Not convinced that the Palestine National Council revoked the anti-Israeli clauses of the PLO charter at a meeting in Gaza two years ago, Mr Netanyahu is demanding that the council reconvene. He is also demanding the extradition of suspected Islamic terrorists to Israel for trial. And he wants Israel to maintain building and planning authority over some of the land to be handed over.
The Palestinians have rejected all of these demands and, therefore, according to Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Sha'ath, there was only "a very, very limited chance" of a breakthrough at last night's meeting. Still, Mr Sha'ath added, "for a chance of one per cent, we will go, because we don't want to be told that we have wasted an opportunity."
For Mr Netanyahu, yesterday's failed car-bombing underlined the need for a determined Palestinian effort to dismantle the Islamic militant groups which have staged a series of suicide bombings inside Israel in recent years. The bombing was apparently scheduled for morning rush-hour on Jerusalem's central Jaffa Road, where several bombs have exploded in the past. Smoke was spotted coming from a white van on the crowded street a little after 8 a.m. The driver, badly burned, was dragged from the vehicle.
The initial suggestion was that the driver had been injured as he made final preparations to detonate the blast. Israeli sources indicated that the damage would have been immense.
"It would have been a disaster," said Jerusalem's police chief, Mr Yair Yitzhaki, who refused to comment on reports that substances resembling nerve gas had been found in the van. Police identified the driver as Jalal Rumanah (30), whom they said had been sentenced in 1990 by an Israeli court to 20 months for Hamas activities. The movement's spokesman in Gaza denied that Hamas was involved. An aide to Mr Arafat suggested that Israel had "fabricated" the episode.
But Mr Sha'ath made no such claim, saying that the attempt was "something we condemn . . . something we are doing our best to prevent."
Additional reporting by AFP