Urging ‘Tough Choices,’ Albright Plans Mideast Trip

In a speech designed to put her in the forefront of Middle East negotiations, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders Wednesday to make the “tough choices” necessary to break a “crisis of confidence” that is rekindling animosities, threatening recent gains and jeopardizing progress.

She also announced that she will make her first trip to the volatile region as secretary of State late this month.

Albright appealed to Israel and the Palestinians to commit themselves to protecting each other’s security.

A week after suicide bombings killed 15 people in a Jerusalem market, she insisted that both sides must “wage war on terror, understanding that forging peace and fighting terrorism are not separate struggles.” In particular, she said, the Palestinian Authority must not give “a green, yellow or blinking light” to violence.

Israel ordered mass arrests and sealed off the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the bombings. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem on Wednesday that Israel will lift the sanctions only after the Palestinian Authority begins to combat terrorism.

At the same time, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat told his followers to “prepare for battle” in expectation of still tougher Israeli measures. “What is coming is worse than what has already been,” Arafat said in Gaza City.

Albright conceded in her speech to the National Press Club that 100% success in deterring terrorism is impossible. “But there must be 100% effort” to identify and seize arms caches, to arrest and prosecute anyone involved in planning, financing or abetting extremism and to create a “moral atmosphere” in which advocacy of terrorism withers, she said.

“There can be no winks, no double standards, no double meanings,” she added. “And with respect to the imprisonment of terrorists, no revolving doors” that operate according to the status of peace talks.

The stakes are too high and the process has gone too far to allow the “vultures of violence” to shape the future, she warned. The search for peace and the fight against terrorism are two aspects of the same effort, she said.

President Clinton echoed that point in a news conference Wednesday. He said Arafat needs to recognize that those responsible for last week’s suicide bombings are not seeking a peace more favorable to the Palestinians.

“It is imperative that Mr. Arafat understand that those people are not his friends either. Those people do not want peace,” Clinton added.

Many Israeli authorities have blamed last week’s attack on the radical Islamic group Hamas, which claimed responsibility for it in a leaflet.

In addition to combating terrorism, Albright said, each side must avoid actions that undermine the confidence of the other. This remark was aimed largely at recent Israeli actions such as settlement construction in the occupied territories and land confiscation, which, she said, challenged “the very logic of negotiations.”

Furthermore, Albright said, the Israelis and Palestinians must accept the premise that peace is not one option among many but the only one that ensures security and well-being. The process is not a “zero-sum game” in which one side wins or gains a major advantage at the other’s expense, she said.

To lay the groundwork for Albright’s trip, longtime U.S. mediator Dennis B. Ross is scheduled to fly to the Middle East this weekend.