JERUSALEM, Dec. 7 -- The death of Yasser Arafat four weeks ago has brought a flurry of diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East by Arab, Palestinian and Israeli leaders seeking to strengthen the hands of moderates, repair strained relations among themselves and revive long-stalled peace negotiations on several fronts.
On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Mahmoud Abbas, the newly chosen chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, met in Damascus with President Bashar Assad of Syria and vowed to resume high-level contacts and policy coordination after more than 10 years of frayed relations.
Separately, Israel and Egypt conducted an exchange of prisoners on Sunday that leaders from both countries said was a sign of warming relations after more than four years of tension.
On Tuesday, Egypt said it had brokered an understanding to halt Israeli-Palestinian violence and move toward a peace accord with a conference in Washington in July that would bring together Israel, the Palestinians, the United States and the European Union, the Associated Press reported. Responding to the report, Israeli officials said there was no new cease-fire deal.
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is reportedly considering returning his ambassador to Tel Aviv for the first time since withdrawing him in November 2000, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he was considering releasing additional Palestinian detainees as part of the prisoner swap.
At the same time, Syria is seeking to reopen negotiations with Israel over the Golan Heights that have been frozen for four years, and Egypt has offered to mediate. Israel has rebuffed the overture.
Last week, Abbas ordered a halt to anti-Israel incitement in Palestinian Authority-controlled news media, and Sharon said he was "going to make every effort to coordinate" the proposed withdrawal of Jewish settlers and Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip with the new Palestinian leadership that has replaced Arafat, who died Nov. 11 at a hospital outside of Paris. Sharon had previously said that his "disengagement" plan would be implemented unilaterally because there was no partner for peace on the Palestinian side.
"There's a regional buildup of momentum to move ahead and use the opening to try to launch an effort at peacemaking," Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian parliament, said. "In a sense, Arafat's death calls everyone's bluff, because a Palestinian partner was always there, but the Israelis used Arafat as a scapegoat and a convenient excuse to avoid a peace process."
Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, Israel's military chief of staff, told foreign reporters Tuesday in Jerusalem that "we are at an important, strategic crossroad. It is decisive time for Israel and the Palestinians, but also for the entire Middle East. . . . There are signs of the potential for change across the region."
Yossi Alpher, an Israeli political analyst and co-founder of Bitterlemons.org, a Palestinian-Israeli dialogue Web site, also cautioned against "too much euphoria," arguing that Sharon did not want to engage in a peace process that led to relinquishing Israeli-occupied territory in the West Bank or Golan Heights.
He also said that Abbas, a leading candidate for president of the Palestinian Authority in elections scheduled for Jan. 9, has yet to prove he can marshal grass-roots support or control violence.
A more moderate and pragmatic Palestinian leadership has begun to emerge since Arafat's death, but it has yet to win the endorsement of the Palestinian public. Abbas and Qureia are outspoken critics of Palestinian violence and are trying -- so far unsuccessfully -- to persuade Palestinian radical groups to stop attacks against Israel.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian cabinet minister who has been the lead negotiator with the Israelis, said: "The endgame of the dialogue going on in Gaza, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon is to have all the Palestinian factions adhere to a cessation of violence against Israelis anywhere, as stipulated in the road map, and we hope that Israel will do the same" by ending attacks against Palestinians and stopping the expansion of Jewish settlements. The "road map" is a U.S.-backed peace plan that calls for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. It has been dormant for more than a year.
Ziad Abu Amr, an independent member of the Palestinian parliament from Gaza City, said it was not just Arafat's death, but the reelection of President Bush in November and the continuing fighting in Iraq that have combined to give rise to the new initiatives.
Amr suggested that the Bush administration was "trying to balance its involvement in Iraq with some sort of involvement in the other core issue, the Palestinian issue." But he warned that the high expectations the White House is creating had to be matched with action.
Researcher Samuel Sockol contributed to this report.
