U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to deliver his long-awaited Middle East policy speech next week. The Bush administration's thinking on the peace process reportedly will not surprise Israel. Even so, Powell says Israel's insistence on a period of quiet before implementation of the Mitchell Report begins was a mistake and that confidence building measures and negotiations should begin immediately.

Powell's speech, to be delivered at the University of Louisville in Kentucky on Monday, signals more intensive U.S. involvement to end fighting between Israel and Palestinians, the Washington Post reported. The change in American policy is due, in part, to Arab and European pressure that the Bush administration gets more involved and defuses the emotional Mideast conflict, the paper reported.

"Powell's speech will focus more on principles than on the specifics of a program," Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres told Israel Radio yesterday. Diplomatic sources believe that the United States will avoid detailed suggestions in regard to problematic elements, such as Jerusalem and the refugees.

Powell will reportedly call for an immediate implementation of the Tenet plan for a cease-fire and the Mitchell Report recommendations. According to media reports, Powell will call on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to back down from Israel's demand that "seven days of quiet" precede the six-week cooling off period stipulated by the Mitchell Commission.

Powell says the "quiet period" was a "mistake," Yediot Aharonot reported. Powell reportedly told European foreign ministers this week in New York that Sharon's demand created a situation where implementation of the Mitchell and Tenet plans was all but impossible.

According to Yediot Aharonot, veteran State Department mediator Aaron Miller was instrumental in preparing the focus of Powell's Middle East speech. The speech, the paper reported, will raise the following main points:

1. Palestinian State - The United States supports the establishment of a Palestinian State alongside Israel. The two countries will have negotiated borders based on UN Security Council decisions 242 and 338. President Bush, for the first time, referred to Palestine by name in his address to the UN General Assembly on Saturday.
   
   
2. Violence - The United States calls for an end of the violence and incitement and for the arrest of wanted terrorists involved in terror attacks.
   
   
3. Jerusalem - Resolution of the Jerusalem issue will be made in final status negotiations. According to the paper, Powell will refrain from mentioning solutions suggested by President Clinton.
   
   
4. Settlements - The United States will call on Israel to freeze all settlement activity during the negotiations period.
   
   
5. Land for peace - The United States will again raise the slogan first suggested at the Madrid conference ten years ago.

Relating to the expected call for a settlement freeze, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio today, "There have been no new settlements since this government came into existence." Ben-Eliezer refused to renege on allowing "natural growth" in the settlements. "We have to remember that there are people who live there. There are 200,000 people living there. You can't just stop their lives," he said.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office expect Powell to inform Israel within the coming days of the points to be raised in the speech, Yediot Aharonot reported. Israeli sources also expect Powell to appoint a special envoy to the Middle East, and quite possibly this will again be Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern affairs William Burns, originally appointed in May by Powell as his "special assistant" to ensure Mitchell Report implementation.

U.S., Russian presidents step up Middle East peace efforts
Meanwhile, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a joint statement yesterday that, acting in concert with other key parties, ''they were stepping up efforts to bring peace to the Middle East."

They urged Israel and the Palestinian Authority "to take urgent steps to ease tension, as well as refrain from actions that are harmful to the other side and to resume the dialogue at a high political level."

Bush and Putin also called on the two sides to implement the Tenet truce plan and the recommendations of the Mitchell Commission.

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, an aide to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, said, that while the Palestinians welcomed the American and Russian concern, "security and stability'' would be achieved only when Israel withdraws from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said, "Our prime minister has stated very clearly that when there is a cease-fire as required by Tenet and Mitchell, he himself will lead the negotiations. The problem is with Arafat," he said.

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