A sudden breakthrough Tuesday brought hope after nearly a year of Middle East bloodshed, with Israel and the Palestinians launching a tentative cease-fire in a bid to end a conflict that some believe provoked the devastating attacks in the United States.
As a fragile calm descended on the Palestinian territories for the first time in months, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said: "Undoubtedly, I think the time has come to meet."
In what Peres described as a potential turning point, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat announced he had reiterated his orders to security commanders to observe a failed June cease-fire that had been brokered by the United States.
"This morning I reiterated my orders to all my security commanders to act intensively in securing a cease-fire on all fronts, and in every town and village," Arafat told reporters in Gaza City.
"I also instructed them to exercise maximum self-restraint in the face of Israeli aggression and attacks, even in self-defense," he said.
Within hours, Israeli Defense Minister Benyamin Ben Eliezer responded with an order to his troops not to open fire on the Palestinians unless attacked, a defense ministry spokesman said.
And in bid to give the process a push, the army announced its immediate withdrawal from areas under full Palestinian control where its had set up security positions during military incursions to punish Palestinian attacks.
"I think it's the most significant thing that has happened in the last few months," said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, who stressed that the Israelis must move "immediately" to open talks and lift their stranglehold on the Palestinian territories.
Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Sunday he would only allow Peres to meet Arafat if the latter ordered a cease-fire and strictly enforced 48 hours of calm.
Erakat also called for a senior US diplomat to be present at the talks and for international observers to be deployed to monitor the cease-fire, something Israel has staunchly opposed.
Peres said the cease-fire -- the first time since June 13 that both sides have simultaneously ordered their forces to hold fire -- appeared to be taking hold.
The breakthrough came after the United States exerted massive pressure on both sides to find a way of tackling violence surrounding the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which has left more than 800 people dead, most of them Palestinians.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had spoken to Peres, Arafat and Sharon to urge them forward.
The administration of US President George W. Bush had kept its distance from the conflict before the massive terrorist attacks on New York and Washington last week, which Jordanian King Abdullah II said would not have happened if the regional crisis had been resolved.
Washington's hands-off approach had provoked the ire of the Palestinians, and of the wider Arab world, who called it a tacit backing of Israel's occupation of their territory, which they said was being propped up by US weapons.
But the aftershock of the anti-American attacks -- which are feared to have killed more than 5,000 people -- and Bush's building of a global coalition against terrorism, appeared to have swept aside such differences and galvanized the stalled peace process.
Arafat's declaration of a cease-fire was met with instant acclaim by the world community, including Powell, Peres and EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana.
The Palestinian leader also offered full Palestinian support to Bush's worldwide crackdown on terrorism, winning Powell's thanks and praise.
"We have some promise this morning and let's hopes that we can see some developments that will continue this sense of promise that is with us this morning," Powell said at a news conference in Washington -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
