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DATE=10-14-2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-267942

TITLE=Clinton-Mideast Wrap (L)

BYLINE=David Gollust

DATELINE=White House

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

///Eds: Clinton to leave White House at 2:05 PM EDT Sunday///

INTRO: President Clinton leaves Washington Sunday for Egypt and a summit meeting aimed at restoring calm and dialogue after the worst outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in several years. Mr. Clinton will be joined at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. VOA's David Gollust reports from the White House.

TEXT: The two-week explosion of violence was a bitter disappointment to Mr. Clinton, who had hoped to see a final-status Israeli-Palestinian peace accord concluded before he leaves office in January.

Now, the President says the objectives are far more modest stopping the disorders, getting the parties talking again, and agreeing on a fact-finding mechanism to determine how the latest trouble began and how to prevent such occurrences in the future.

In his Saturday radio address, he said a way must be found to end a tragic pattern in which gains in peace-making have been followed by outbursts of destruction:

///Clinton actuality///

The violence we've seen there demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that the alternative to peace is unacceptable, and that no one will gain from an endless contest of inflicting, and absorbing pain. Ending the violence and getting people of the Middle East back to dialogue will be hard after what has happened. But no matter how difficult that task may be, no matter how terrible the images of this week's violence, the effort must continue with America's strong support.

///end act///

The President said in the broadcast message the United States must be involved because it has a "profound national interest" in peace in the Middle East, and what he termed, "a very special bond to the State of Israel."

Mr. Clinton had spent days on the phone with regional leaders trying to calm tensions and arrange the summit, which Egypt and the Palestinians had initially resisted in the absence of an Israeli military pullback from Palestinian areas.

U-N Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose shuttle mission in the area was also instrumental in the summit effort, said in the end there were no preconditions but rather "suggestions" by the parties on how to proceed.

Mr. Annan will take part in the meeting as will U-S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who U-S officials said would be available for post-summit diplomacy depending on how productive the talks with Prime Minister Barak and Chairman Arafat prove to be. (Signed)

NEB/DAG/PLM