Military

DATE=11/12/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-269149

TITLE=CLINTON / BARAK (L/S)

BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE

DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: President Clinton has held talks at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on ways to end Israeli / Palestinian violence and how to bring both sides back to the negotiating table. But as Correspondent Nick Simeone reports - three days after a White House visit by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - no way has been have been found to do that.

TEXT: There was little optimism going into Sunday night's session that it could lead to a quick resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. In fact, one U-S official told reporters after the Clinton-Barak meeting that, instead of discussing new ideas for peace, the president found himself stressing to the Israeli leader - as he did to Yasser Arafat last week - that military force cannot resolve differences.

Mr. Clinton is still trying to find a way to change the atmosphere on the ground to allow both sides to get back to the negotiating table, after more than a month of violence that has claimed about 200 lives, - the majority of them Palestinian. But ever since Israel and the Palestinians agreed at a summit last month in Egypt to stop the violence, the atmosphere has only gotten worse. Mr. Arafat, who met with President Clinton last Thursday, is now calling for a jihad against Israel.

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The president did not speak to reporters after Sunday's talks, but Prime Minister Barak left the White House clearly angry at Yasser Arafat's latest statements.

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I can just say that this is not the way and we do really expect the governments and the peoples of the free world to make their own judgements about whether a jihad or a negotiated agreement is the right way to solve conflict.

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He and Yasser Arafat were unable to reach a comprehensive peace agreement at their Camp David summit in July. Now, expectations have been lowered so much that just getting the fighting to stop would be considered progress. U-S officials say there was no discussion Sunday about convening another Israeli-Palestinian summit before the end of the year, meaning it looks at this stage that President Clinton's term will end in January without him achieving his long-sought goal of a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement. (SIGNED)

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