U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters yesterday that any Israeli-Palestinian meeting would be pointless unless the two sides put new proposals on the table. "The two sides should offer specific ideas and the talks must make progress," he insisted.

"There is no point in having a meeting unless groundwork

"If Arafat can't stop the terrorism, then there's no point in Peres meeting with him." - Shinui leader Tommy Lapid

has been laid, unless people are coming to this meeting with specific ideas and not just... charges to go back and forth," he said.

After three weeks of groundwork and intensive behind-the-scenes preparations and frequent press reports that a meeting was imminent, plans for the first face-to-face encounter in two months between Peres and Arafat remained doubtful. Sunday's shooting attack and suicide bombings, last night's killing of two Israeli Border Policemen and the concentration of IDF forces blockading the West Bank city of Jenin reduced the likelihood of a meeting in the immediate future.

Palestinian sources charged that the IDF was planning an incursion into Jenin to torpedo the chances of a meeting taking place. Army Radio reported Palestinian officials stating that if the IDF entered the city, the meeting would be cancelled.

Arafat told European Union peace envoy Miguel Moratinos yesterday that his meeting with Peres had not yet been set.

Peres confirmed yesterday that contacts were underway to organize a Tuesday evening meeting, preferably at the Erez Crossing on the northern border of the Gaza Strip. "We have agreed on a day but it's not clear where it will be held," Peres told a Jerusalem press conference. "We would like it to be a meeting in a place where there is less media presence," he added.

Peres also said that he wants the meeting "at a place where the two parties will feel equally free, and if something happens [in Israel] we will be in contact with the events." Media commentators speculated that Peres's reluctance to leave Israel was due to the growing prospects of a major IDF military action. He expressed the need to be able to return home quickly "if something happens."

The Palestinians had been pushing Egypt as a possible venue for the talks, suggesting Cairo, Taba or Sharm el-Sheikh as alternative locations. Israeli diplomatic sources were quick to reject the Palestinian suggestion, fearing that talks in Egypt would be considered to be of a political nature. The sources also said that Egypt's participation in attempts to include anti-Israel language in the World Conference against Racism resolutions cast doubts on its integrity as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.

Palestinian sources had said the meeting would take place in the presence of European Union foreign policy envoy Javier Solana and possibly the Russian and US envoys to the region. Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel told former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin yesterday that he would also take part in the meeting. Peres rejected the suggestions, saying the meeting should be held "face to face, without any other participants. This is the beginning of a very difficult chapter, and we should be free to speak our minds in order to reopen the negotiations."

Peres said his talks with Arafat would focus on bringing about a cease-fire, ending Palestinian incitement, easing living conditions of the residents of Palestinian-controlled territories, and redeploying IDF forces to less intrusive positions. Peres said he envisions a series of two to three meetings with Arafat.

Media commentators suggested that Palestinian haggling over the time and location of the proposed meeting was due to a hardening of their stance against Israel and because of their low expectations of the outcome of the meeting. The meeting now apparently will be held only after Arafat's trip to Syria this week for his planned talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad, if at all. The Syrians have reportedly made Arafat's visit conditional on a commitment to continue the Intifada, so comments to that effect following his meetings in Damascus could also derail the prospect of imminent talks.

A senior Palestinian official told ynet yesterday that "the Palestinians do not believe the meeting will lead to a breakthrough, and are doubtful to the extent of the mandate that Peres will bring to the talks."

Last week media reports suggested that the Palestinians had set conditions for a meeting, including a demand that Peres have a "clear mandate" from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, that "good preparations" are made for the meeting, and that the two discuss political matters as well. Yesterday Abu Rudaineh said the Palestinian leader was ready to meet Peres on Monday, but Peres reportedly delayed the meeting by a day because the nation was "in mourning" for the victims of Sunday's terrorist attacks.

Sharon clarified late last week that he has given his support for the proposed Peres-Arafat meeting, but as was previously decided, Peres will be limited in the talks to discussion of a cease-fire arrangement. According to media reports, Peres will be accompanied to the meeting by the chief of the Israel Defense Forces Planning Branch, Major General Giora Eiland, another condition Sharon set for talks of his Foreign Minister with Arafat.

Israeli politicians protest "unnecessary and wretched meeting"
This week's wave of tragic terrorist attacks led many Israeli politicians to voice their opposition to the proposed Peres-Arafat meeting. Minister without Portfolio Danny Naveh (Likud) again called on Peres to cancel the talks yesterday. "Arafat continues to encourage terror, and the time has come for Peres to stop pretending that there is someone there to talk to," he said.

"This is an unnecessary and wretched meeting," Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evi told Army Radio yesterday. "[Previous] meetings with Arafat did not help in the war against terrorism or stop terrorism. [The meeting] constitutes diplomatic negotiations under fire, in contradiction to everything our leaders have declared and said."

Shinui party leader MK Tommy Lapid said, "If Arafat can't stop the terrorism, then there's no point in Peres meeting with him." National Religious Party head Rabbi Yitzchak Levy also called for preparations for a meeting to be cancelled. "There must be a limit to the humiliation that Israel is willing to undergo," he said.

Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau (Likud) said that a Peres-Arafat meeting would only encourage terrorism. "After eight years of Oslo and 11 months of Intifada, the conception that dialogue with Arafat can reduce terrorism has been smashed to smithereens… Hundreds have been murdered because of this dialogue," he added.

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