Israeli diplomat skeptical of Arafat> Vice consul: Media distorts conflict

WATERVILLE – An Israeli diplomat said Friday she welcomed news that Yasser Arafat had ordered a halt to the violence in Palestinian-controlled territories.

But Anat Gilead, a Boston-based vice consul of Israel, said it remains to be seen whether the Palestinian leader’s word alone will end the shooting and return the conflict to the negotiating table.

“It’s very important to see the implementation of [the order] on the ground,” Gilead, who was visiting Maine to discuss the issue, said in an interview.

“We’ll have to wait and see what kind of an effect it will have,” she said.

During an afternoon forum at Colby College, Gilead said Israelis remain skeptical of Arafat’s intentions because he has allowed the violence to continue unchecked during the six-week uprising that threatens once again to derail the peace process.

She said many Israelis suspect Arafat may have been exploiting the violence for a political edge at the bargaining table.

“All we demanded, from the very first day of violence, was for Arafat to call for a cessation of the violence,” Gilead told a mix of about a dozen students and faculty members at the liberal arts college.

Instead, she said, “he used the media channel he controls to incite violence.”

Gilead said she has visited college campuses, spoken to Jewish groups and met with reporters to counter what she calls the distortion of the conflict by the news media.

People see scenes of rock-throwing Palestinian boys on the nightly news but have no context in which to process those images.

Viewers don’t know, for instance, that the Palestinians have manipulated the media for political gain. Nor do they know that behind the lines of children, away from the cameras, lie armed Palestinian police.

Israel has made peace with the Egyptians and Jordanians, Gilead said. Now it is willing to take great risks to do the same with the Palestinians.

Earlier this week, for instance, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak appealed to President Clinton to do all he could to end the confrontation with the Palestinians.

But Gilead said Israelis, who will defend themselves when attacked, will not return to the negotiating table until the shooting and rioting end.

Arafat’s support for peace is critical, she said.

“He could have stopped them from inciting,” Gilead said Friday afternoon, before learning of Arafat’s announcement to stop the shooting. “We’ve waited and waited and waited and haven’t heard from him a very simple order to stop the violence.”

Gilead said the violence broke out after recent discussions among Clinton, Arafat and Barak had reached their most difficult stage.

The two sides had to resolve lingering issues that included control of Jerusalem, the Israeli capital, and the possible return home of millions of Palestinian refugees. Facing the challenge, Gilead said, Arafat resorted to a carefully crafted campaign of violence.

“The whole world understood that Barak was flexible and committed to the peace process,” she said. “Arafat didn’t take one step.”

Gilead said the situation in the Middle East has changed dramatically since the Arab uprising in the late 1980s.

At the time, most Palestinian territory was under Israeli control. Today, thanks largely to the 1993 Arab-Israeli Peace Accord and other agreements, 98 percent of Palestinians live in Palestinian-controlled lands.

“What they got was 10 times larger than what they gained through violence,” Gilead said.

“All Israelis want peace,” she said. “The question is what risks are they willing to take to achieve that peace.”