Israelis and Palestinians Attempt to Complete Final Peace Accord Framework
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is in the Middle East to push for a final Israeli-Palestinian framework peace accord. As CNN's Jerrold Kessel reports, Albright may have to bridge large caps in thinking between the two sides.</s>JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An unexpected outcome of Israel's military withdrawal from South Lebanon: Across the border fence, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon meet their relatives from Israel. Special relevance perhaps about this after reports that as part of a Palestinian-Israeli peace package developed in back- channel Stockholm talks, Israel might consider a family reunification program.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Israel prepared to implement family reunification with 100,000 Palestinian refugees?</s>SHLOMO BEN AMI, SENIOR ISRAELI NEGOTIATOR: I'm not going to go -- I'm not going to go into any kind of internal deliberations with the Palestinians as far as the so-called Stockholm channel is concerned.</s>KESSEL (voice-over): Another key issue: Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has been seeking to postpone consideration of its future to a later agreement. "That's a definite no-go," says Yasser Arafat, translated by a top aide.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whether people like it or not, Jerusalem is the most -- single most important element of these negotiations and of the outcome, and if there are people who don't like it, let them drink from the Dead Sea.</s>YASSER ARAFAT, PRESIDENT, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: The capital of the Palestinian state.</s>KESSEL: The nature and boundaries of that state are also still very much in dispute. Israel has mapped out a territorial plan for the West Bank, but for the Palestinians, that's not the essence.</s>SAEB ERAKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: What they are doing in the negotiations and in the preparations for negotiations is to define the limitations on us, whether you call us self-government or you call us a state.</s>AMI: It will be totally wrong, in my view, if the Palestinians stick to one ingredient of the package. They have fascinating ingredients, components in this package that they should look at.</s>KESSEL: If Mr. Barak's plans worry Palestinians, they alarm Israelis living in the West Bank. Tens of thousands of Jewish settlers might have to be removed under his reported future map for the West Bank. That's increased concern for the security of the prime minister and other leading ministers for fear ultranationalist Jews might try to harm them in hope of derailing the peace moves. (on camera): After Secretary of State Albright's two-day mission here, Yasser Arafat is expected to travel to Washington for a meeting with President Clinton, to be followed by a return Albright visit to the region; all aimed at paving the way for a critical three-way Clinton-Arafat-Barak summit by the end of this month or early July. Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.