DATE=10/2/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
NUMBER=2-267370
TITLE=U.S.-MIDEAST VIOLENCE (L-UPDATE)
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton is continuing telephone diplomacy in an effort to end the worst outburst of Israeli-Palestinian violence in four years. The United States hopes to convene a three-way security meeting in the region, once the fighting subsides, to try to steer the parties back toward peace negotiations. VOA's David Gollust reports from the White House.
TEXT: Mr. Clinton says he and his advisers have been in constant contact with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, urging them to do everything in their power to stop the violence that threatens to kill chances for a final-status peace accord before he leaves office.
The President discussed the crisis with Jordan's King Abdullah and French President Jacques Chirac (Monday), after weekend phone conversations with both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In a talk with reporters, Mr. Clinton said he thinks Mr. Barak and Chairman Arafat are trying to stop the fighting and predicted the situation would be better on Tuesday.
He acknowledged the outburst has -- at least in the short run -- hurt the peace process, but that perhaps the painful experience of the last few days will propel the sides back to the U-S-mediated negotiations:
///CLINTON ACTUALITY///
They can't do anything on the peace process until people stop dying and the violence stops. But when the smoke clears here, it might actually be a spur to both sides as a sober reminder of what the alternative to peace could be. So, we have to hope and pray that will be the result
///END ACT///
The President said he had seen more than once -- the video footage of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy and his father caught in a gunbattle between Israeli and Palestinian forces in Gaza Saturday, and found it "heartbreaking."
The boy was killed and his father sustained serious injuries in the incident caught by a cameraman for a French television network and broadcast worldwide.
White House officials said both parties have been receptive to the call for a U-S-chaired security meeting that would examine the cause of the latest violence and explore ways to prevent or limit further outbreaks.
Clinton spokesman Jake Siewert said the United States did not want to engage in pointing fingers of blame in the latest unrest.
But he said the White House agrees with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that Thursday's visit by Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to Jerusalem's Temple Mount -- which sparked Palestinian rioting -- was unhelpful and counter-productive.
He said the United States has urged everyone connected to the conflict to exercise good judgement, to avoid provocative acts, and to respect -- in particular -- that site, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims and one of the main points of dispute in the negotiations. (Signed)
NEB/DAG/FC
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