Separate peace initiatives promoted in recent days by FM Shimon Peres and a forum of European Union foreign ministers have not created diplomatic momentum to offset the escalating violence between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Peres failed to find Knesset support, even among members of his own party, for the plan he finished preparing with Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Abu Ala.

The joint proposal, the content of which has not yet been made public, was originally set to be discussed on Monday at a session of Labor Party members. But party leader, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, shot down discussion by declaring that, in his opinion, "this plan cannot be implemented."

The so-called "Peres - Abu Ala Plan" is reportedly based on four stages:

	Cease-fire and collection of illegal weapons by the PA.
	Recognition by Israel of a Palestinian state and renewed Palestinian recognition of Israel.
	Establishment of a Palestinian state on Areas A and B (42% of the West Bank and Gaza).
	Final status negotiations, including Jerusalem, settlements, and refugee issues, over the course of a year.

"The whole basis of the plan is worthless," MK Haim Ramon said. "Abu Ala doesn't have influence on Hamas. He doesn't even influence the Tanzim. The PA is neither willing, nor able, to end terror."

Peres told close associates that the agreements he had reached with Abu Ala were better than the Oslo Accords, and corrected the flaws in those agreements, Yediot Aharonot reported.

At the Labor Party session, Ben-Eliezer admitted charging earlier that Abu Ala did not actually agree with the document prepared with Peres. Abu Ala told Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh that the Palestinian leadership did support the agreement, but still insisted that the borders of the future Palestinian state would be the pre-June 1967 boundaries, media sources reported.

Sneh told Israel Radio this morning that he spoke with Abu Ala on Sunday night, and the Palestinian leader advised him of the existence of a secret supplementary letter to the joint proposal, setting the borders of the Palestinian state as the 1967 lines. Abu Ala said Palestinian support was conditional on this side-letter, which, according to Sneh, would be written by a third party, possibly the United States. Yediot Aharonot reported that the letter would be written by the European Union, which would serve as a guarantor for the Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

Labor faction chairman MK Efi Oshaya said that when Peres presented the Abu Ala document at the party's meeting on Monday, no mention was made of the 1967 borders issue. Responding to Oshaya's comments, sources in Peres's office insisted that no clause of the agreement was left out when the plan was presented. Interviewed Tuesday on Army Radio, Peres admitted that the plan would be based on the 1967 borders, with minor border adjustments and "exchanges of territory," an apparent reference to Israel giving parts of its current sovereign territory to the Palestinians in exchange for territories over the Green Line.

Peres met on Monday with Shas party leader, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, and also approached Shinui leader, MK Tommy Lapid, in attempts to garner additional support for the proposal. Lapid said the chances of Shinui supporting the proposal were slim, and Yishai deferred deciding on Shas support until he could consult with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Ben-Eliezer.

EU plan seen as part of growing differences with U.S.
European foreign ministers met in Spain on Saturday and formulated their own blueprint for reviving peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The European Union plan is based on elections in the Palestinian territories "to support the Palestinian Authority's popular legitimacy in its efforts to crack down" on extremists, and the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state that would be recognized by Israel and admitted to the United Nations. Israeli troops would withdraw to positions they held before September 2000 in order to enable the elections. The newly declared Palestinian state and Israel would sign "a declaration of non-belligerency" and open final status negotiations, according to the EU plan.

"We don't want to be different just for the sake of being different," said French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, who presented the plan. "But we need to relaunch and nourish the peace process, which today is totally blocked."

The creation of a Palestinian state must be the "starting point of a negotiating process," he said.

Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, chairman of the meeting, said the European initiative would be developed further at another meeting of foreign ministers on February 18 and at a mid-March European summit in Barcelona.

American officials dismissed the European proposals, saying that international efforts should continue "to keep the focus right now on the need for Chairman Arafat to take steps against the violence." Speaking to reporters on Friday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "Introducing other elements that divert the attention from this focus doesn't really move the situation forward."

The Americans prefer that Middle East peace efforts proceed according to the Mitchell Commission recommendations and the Tenet cease-fire plan. The European ministers said a new peace initiative was necessary as American efforts to broker a cease-fire had not been successful.

Media analysts suggested that the European initiative was launched due to growing differences with the United States, not only over its Middle East policies, but also in reaction to the Americans' foreign policy efforts in single-handedly fighting global terror.

"It is not true that there was a consensus at the EU ministers' meeting in Spain on Saturday," a spokesman for British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told Ha'aretz on Monday. The spokesman quoted Straw, who is due in Israel on Wednesday, as telling his EU colleagues "to be careful about new initiatives." Straw reportedly said that Israel was under a constant terror threat and that the security situation must improve before the two sides could resume talks.

Several Palestinian officials rejected the European proposal of holding elections, the Jerusalem Post reported. "Holding elections now would only strengthen the extremists," one Palestinian source told the paper.

Officials in Israel have not responded formally to the European proposals, since there is nothing formal to respond to. Even so, Israeli diplomatic sources believe that the EU is formulating its proposals to present itself as defender of the Palestinian cause. Israel prefers to stay aligned with recent American statements calling instead for a cessation of Palestinian terrorism as a prerequisite for the resumption of talks, the sources said.

ynet reported that Foreign Ministry Dir.-Gen. Avi Gil will leave for Brussels on Wednesday with the goal of persuading the European foreign ministers to abandon their proposal for Palestinian elections and instead adopt the "Peres-Abu Ala" document.

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