MR. Netanyahu, to say the least, is as difficult as his name. Even the United States is finding it difficult to deal with him. Secretary of State Albright, despite her Jewish background, has been unable to convince Netanyahu of the need for giving appropriate concessions to the Palestinians in terms of Oslo Agreement. She faced serious problems In continuing her talks with him when she called for Time Out" in last Summer on building new settlements in the occupied territories and particularly in and around Jerusalem. This happened when Netanyahu government went for Jewish settlement in Har Homa. Of course. Netanyahu was later encouraged by Speaker Newt Gingrich when he termed Albright as Palestinian Agent during the former s visit to Israel. During Britain's Presidency of European Community. British Foreign Secretary Rabin Cook had a row with Netanyahu when he met a Palestinian leader during his Har Homa visit for which Netanyahu acted discourteously and cancelled the official dinner.

Indeed. Israeli settlement issue kept the peace process off the track for about a year and a half. This suits Netanyahu and his rightist cabinet well as this gives them the opportunity to build more settlements around East Jerusalem and in West Bank. The settlement has been the center piece of Netanyahu government's occupation policy since It came to power. About a year and half back during our visit to Jerusalem when we were driving up the Mount of Olives the Jewish guide was telling us about the new settlement plan in the outskirts of East Jerusalem. The

recent approval for building Jewish homes at the base of Mount of Olives cemetery was another step towards strengthening of the expansion activities.

The painful expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem and West Bank after the creation of Israel in May 1948 Is known all over the world. This was well reflected in the recent statement of Abu Abbas, the alleged mastermind of Achlle Lauro hijacking about 13 years ago. He said, "Look we fee) sorry of all that happened on the ship" referring to the killing of Leon Klinghoffer, the man in the wheel chair, who was shot and thrown into the Mediterranean as he was allegedly "inciting and provoking other passengers." Abu Abbas continued. "We know how hard and painful it is when someone is killed who is not related to the conflict. We have seen it happen to thousands. Millions more have been displaced from their homes and the world never apologised to us. We hope one day the ■ world hears our cries" as loud as it heard Klinghoffer." That displacement Abq Abbas talked about made so many Palestinians stateless whereas Israel has been encouraging Jews from different parts of the world including Russia and Ethiopia to come and settle in the territories which belonged to the Palestinians. There has been some systematic uprooting of Palestinian families from different areas of Jerusalem and West Bank all of which may now be seen as another form of "Ethnic cleansing". Indeed, according to some recent report, the expulsion of Palestinians even during 1967 war was deliberate. Some positive steps taken by an army officer like Roman Lurie minimised the then expulsion onslaught. According to the same report, Israelis at the highest level were involved in the expulsion process which was nothing but ethnic cleansing. Netanyahu government appears to have followed the same pattern and seem determined to change the demographic situation of Jerusalem which the international community must take up seriously. There are series of reports of forced occupation by Jewish rightist groups of Palestinian homes by expelling Palestinian families. Often Jerusalem Municipal authority demolishes homes of Palestinians by declaring them as unauthorised homes. These are unauthorised because no Palestinian ever gets permission to build new homes in Jerusalem. This privilege is enjoyed only by the Jewish people. Israeli government itself has been building housing complexes with a view to encouraging the Jewish people to move to Jerusalem and particularly In the newly built areas of East Jerusalem. The main idea behind this is to Increase the Jewish population in Jerusalem.

The new expansion plan is certainly "for strengthening Jerusalem's status" as Netanyahu himself said while introducing the plan to his cabinet which approved it. The "strengthening Jerusalem's status" means change of city's status which is against the spirit of Oslo agreement as no change.should take place before the final negotiations on Jerusalem's status which is scheduled in May 1999.

The present expansion plan appears to be the first step towards annexation of the Jewish settlements east of Green Line — the line that divides Israel and West Bank before 1967 war. Indeed, there are settlements and new government buildings east of Green Une and we saw some when we crossed the Green Line from Israel. It has been said that the effort is to put municipal services by extending Jerusalem's "Municipal Umbrella" but this could be done through temporary measures without going for such an extensive formal expansion plan which has been rightly termed by the US administration as "provocative". Secretary Albright personally called up Netanyahu to express her displeasure over the expansion plan. Her spokesman James Rubin denounced it in harsh terms and said" .. it is extremely hard to understand why Israel would even consider taking such a provocative step at the sensitive time in the negotiations."

Palestinian negotiator Erekat turned It as "... declaration of war on the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem". Netanyahu in subsequent statement tried to clarify his intention on the expansion plan. He said, "the plan has no political ramifications and was Intended to expand the Municipal authority of the city of Jerusalem into areas beyond the Green Une. The US administration "appreciated the clarification" but remained sceptical about the ultimate aim of the Netanyahu government in terms of implementation of the plan. Mere expression of "displeasure and asking for "time out" on issues like expansion plan and settlement construction in Palestinian land do not seem to be enough for a difficult person like Netanyahu and his rightist government. Even President Clinton's refusal some months ago to see Netanyahu at Washington also did not soften Netanyahu's obstinate attitude on settlement policy. The US and international community must guard against Netanyahu's policy of

grabbing East Jerusalem to fulfil his rightist government's ultimate aim of making Jerusalem the "undivided city" as he put it as the Jewish capital. This must be resisted without any further loss of time otherwise it would be too late as the process of engulfing East Jerusalem has been going on form all directions since the takeover of Netanyahu’s government.

The US administration's scepticism is Justified as settlement and expansion plan are indeed designed to create barriers against Israeli withdrawals. Israel knew that a stage would come when it would be under international pressure to withdraw from the occupied territories. This is why Israel encouraged settlements In and around the towns in West Bank and particularly In East Jerusalem. As various reports indicate the settlers have already formed a council which is now a veritable political force and having direct contacts with the rightist Knesset members of Netanyahu's government. Thus Netanyahu is also in difficulties. He knows he has to order Israeli withdrawal one day but withdrawal may lead to fall of Netanyahu government. The Religious Party Is threatening to withdraw from the government if more land is transferred but the other coalition partner the Third Party is saying that if an agreement on ceding land is not arrived at quickly it will quit the government. To get out of the political stalemate he called for a Referendum but this was later discarded as he got no support for his proposal.

Last week Israeli President Ezer Weizman publicly called for an early general election. He

said." If I were in his place. I would move for early elections. The sooner we go to early elections the sooner well know what the public thinks." President Weizman

has been very bitter recently with Netanyahu as he felt that he was repeatedly duped by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Netanyahu dismissed President Weizman's call for General Election and said the President was a supporter of Palestinians. Netanyahu will soon detect to his surprise that majority of the Israelis are now the supporters of peace and would, therefore, be in favour of ceding land to the Palestinians for peace. President Weizman would not have come down so heavily on the Prime Minister himself if he had not sensed some changes in the attitude of the Israelis. Though President Weizman does not have any constitutional authority to order general elections his words have a lot of political Implications. The Peace Now Movement in Israel has been working for sometime on the " ifesue of feeding land for peace and reportedly the moverpent (has already gained considerable "support from Israeli public. Majority now appears to be in favour of ceding land for peace and security as they know that only peace can bring security and not land.

The US Administration has to take a very firm stand on two points: building of new settlements must stop which would be in lime with Secretary Albright's "Time Out" announcement as new settlement will further complicate the Israeli withdrawal. Already there are 18 settlements in the West Bank which already have about 160.000 Jews, among 1.6 million Palestinians. In any case the settlements in Jerusalem and West Bank are small ones with most of them temporary makeshift houses. Various reports show that number of families in various settlements in West Bank varies from 25 to 100. With Israeli withdrawal most of these settlements in West Bank will fall within Palestinian administration. Once the decision is made on withdrawal, the option may be given to the settlers to resettle in areas within Israel proper and they have to be provided with housing facilities or cash financial support to build houses. As the number is not big these families can be accommodated within Israel.

Israel should first accommodate the settlers before Inviting foreign Jews to come to Israel and settle there. After the option if some families decide to stay back. Palestinian Authority should accept them as their own people and provide security and other facilities. Afterall Palestinians are also living in Israel. One cannot have total transfer of population. The Israeli constructions around East Jerusalem and those situated east of Green Line may have to be treated differently keeping in view the city limits to be determined at the negotiations on final status of Jerusalem. It seems that shape of outer part of East Jerusalem (Sacred areas and Old city must remain unaffected) may change somewhat if there will be an agreement to transfer most of the settlements and other Israeli government constructions to Israel. If that becomes a necessity on the basis of any future agreement. East Jerusalem which Palestinians rightly claim as the capital of their future State has to be compensated appropriately in terms of area and facilities.

The US has been working for sometime on the second withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied territories which has been stalled for several months. On this issue the Washington Summit of Netanyahu and Arafat with President Clinton was cancelled some time ago as there was no agreement on the extent of withdrawal. Washington nightly Insisted on 13 per cent to which Palestinians agreed, but Netanyahu started with 9 per cent and later very reluctantly went upto 11 per cent and that also tagged with security issue. However, that fell far short of even the moderate withdrawal plan proposed by Washington. Security issue Is undoubtedly Important for Israelis but land cannot provide security. This has been amply proved In South Lebanon as self declared security zone for 15 years could not provide security to Israel. Scores of Israelis and particularly Israeli army personnel were'kllled during this period within and around self declared security zone.

"Therefore, the only answer to this is to create confidence between two people and this Is possible only by returning land to the owners — the Palestinians, and allowing them to live peacefully. Land for peace is the only answer. Tons of papers written and signed by leaders would not nelp unless land is given back. The peace process is virtually dead. An urgent initiative is needed to be taken by the US to revive the peace process otherwise the control will soon pass on to the radicals.