PRESIDENT CLINTON will try to resolve the latest crisis between Israelis and Palestinians at a White House summit expected to take place tomorrow.
The summit is seen here as a gamble for the President, who faces the first debate in the presidential election next Sunday. A resumption of the violence after the summit would weaken Mr Clinton's position in the run up to the election on November 5th.
In a bold stroke, the President has invited to the emergency summit the Prime Minister of Israel, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu; the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat; the President of Egypt, Mr Hosni Mubarak; and King Hussein of Jordan.
Announcing the summit at a brief appearance in the White House rose garden yesterday, President Clinton said "it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to protect the peace process. He said, "We have to return to the path of peace along which they have travelled so far."
But the US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, later warned not to "expect miracles out of this rather brief meeting." He said that the peace process was in jeopardy" and was facing "probably the worst threat it's had."
The violence which erupted in Gaza and other towns on the West Bank has left 65 Palestinians and 14 Israeli soldiers dead. The violence was sparked by the Israeli decision to open a new entrance to a tunnel at the Temple Mount site in Jerusalem, which runs close to the Al Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest Muslim sites.
President Clinton said Mr Netanyahu, Mr Arafat and King Hussein would attend the summit. President Mubarak was seeing if it were possible to attend.
Mr Clinton did not answer a question asking for his reaction to the reopening of the controversial tunnel.
While many world leaders criticised the Israeli action in opening it, the President was clearly unwilling to condemn the Israeli action and risk antagonising a large number of Jewish voters.
Mr Clinton said both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Arafat are concerned about the way that events have spun out of control, about the loss of life, the injury, the eruptions of old tensions and bitterness."
The White House spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry, said the tentative plan was for the leaders to hold bilateral meetings on Tuesday, followed by a wider meeting.
Asked if it were conceivable that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Arafat could fly to Washington and not meet face to face, Mr McCurry said that was an unlikely outcome. "The risk associated with a very high profile conference here in Washington was worth it, given the enormous progress that's been made in the peace process and the danger that would exist if we took a step backwards", Mr McCurry said.
David Horovitz adds from Jerusalem:
Israel yesterday reopened the Jerusalem Old City tunnel that sparked the violence. Although there were minor clashes with local Palestinian youths when the doors were pushed open, they were quickly suppressed by police.
Mr Netanyahu yesterday insisted he welcomed "the opportunity" for peace progress offered by the summit. He said he hoped the meeting would ensure an end to violence, and an acceleration of negotiations.
It is clear he is the one who has had to back down in advance of the meeting. He has been adamant that the Jerusalem tunnel will stay open, but Mr Arafat has sought, and apparently obtained, firm promises on other disputed issues.
As a condition of his participation, Mr Arafat is understood to have demanded an unshakeable Israeli commitment to a timetable for the Hebron troop pull out and for implementation of other clauses of the peace accords. Mr Netanyahu, it would seem, will not be able to leave Washington without fixing a clear date for the Hebron withdrawal.
Unsure of how the Israeli Prime Minister intends to proceed, his advisers spent most of yesterday contradicting each other. One spokesman, Mr David Bar Illan, spoke of plans to disarm the Palestinian police, send troops into Arafat controlled areas, and reject a Hebron pull out altogether. Another spokesman, Mr Danny Navey, insisted the Prime Minister was keen to reach an agreement on Hebron.
Much of the Israeli press has turned on the Prime Minister. Even the normally staunchly proNetanyahu Jerusalem Post launched an extraordinary attack on him for harming relations with the Arab world, for "flawed" decision making and for "sloppy thinking".