President Clinton will be briefed today about his failed attempt to break the impasse in the Middle East peace negotiations by hosting a summit here of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
His invitation to the summit was conditional on both sides accepting the latest US plan for a phased Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. But the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, has made it clear to the US special envoy, Mr Dennis Ross, that the terms were unacceptable.
Mr Clinton tomorrow leaves for Europe for a series of engagements in Germany and Britain and will not be back in the US until early next week. He is expected to discuss the Middle East situation with other world leaders whom he will meet at the G8 economic summit in Birmingham.
A White House spokesman, while confirming that the Washington summit will not take place today said that "the invitation remains on the table". The Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, had already agreed to come to Washington on the US terms calling for a 13 per cent Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank. A White House official told Reuters news agency that while there would not be a summit today, "there's a sense that things could happen when he [Mr Clinton] gets back from Europe, but nothing has been worked out".
The conciliatory tone is in contrast with the virtual ultimatum that the Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, issued in London last week when she said publicly that today was the deadline for Israel to accept the US proposal and began a new phase in the peace negotiations. Otherwise "we will have to re-examine our approach to the peace process", she said.
US officials indicated then that if the deadline were not met, the President would authorise Ms Albright to make a tough speech setting out the US proposals publicly for the first time and declaring an end to active US mediation until Israel accepted them.
American-Jewish opinion is mixed on whether it believes Mr Clinton is putting too much pressure on Israel to accept the US proposals. A poll released by the Israel Policy Forum, which is regarded as "dovish" on the peace negotiations, says that 80 per cent of the American Jews questioned last week supported Mr Clinton's "current effort to revive Israel-Palestinian negotiations". Another 18 per cent oppose the President.
But there are also reports that Ms Albright's deadline and the remarks by Mrs Hillary Clinton accepting an eventual Palestinian state have rallied Jewish opinion here in favour of Mr Netanyahu. Mr David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee in New York, is quoted as saying: "The perception of an ultimatum to Israel, as well as the unfortunate and ill-timed comment of Mrs Clinton, only fed the Jewish community's concern that something is amiss in the Israel-US relationship."
The White House was forced to disown Mrs Clinton's remarks made on a television link-up to Switzerland to young Israelis and Palestinians. "That view, expressed personally by the First Lady, is not the view of the President," the press secretary, Mr Mike McCurry, said later.
The official US policy up to now has been that it is up to the Israelis and the Palestinians to decide the question of statehood.
Republicans on Capitol Hill also reacted sharply to what they see as the administration's pro-Palestinian stance. Speaker Newt Gingrich called the President "pro-Arafat" and 220 Republican members of the House of Representatives said in a letter that Israel should not accept the US plan. Mr Clinton last week rejected claims that the US was giving Israel an ultimatum.
