A report by Haaretz newspaper said that an agreement was reached late Sunday between Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres that if the quiet lasts until Monday evening, the meeting between Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will take place.
The meeting between the two was scheduled for Sunday but was called off by Sharon.
Although he cancelled the meeting, Sharon made positive remarks regarding the Palestinians in a public appearance Sunday evening, said the paper.
"Israel wants to give the Palestinians what no one before gave them: The possibility to establish a state," Sharon told a gathering of teachers in Jerusalem. "The Turks, British, Egyptians and Jordanians did not give them such a possibility. All that Israel requests is the obligation to stop the terror," he added.
Peres and Arafat were scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. at the Gaza International Airport, but after Shas leader Eli Yishai threatened to quit the coalition, Sharon decided the meeting would not take place Sunday.
The prime minister told the cabinet at its weekly session Sunday that the meeting was off.
He informed Peres of his decision before the cabinet meeting began.
But the US on Sunday expressed its support to the seemingly unlikely meeting.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell phoned Peres later Sunday to tell him his planned meeting with Arafat was "urgent," AFP cited a Peres spokesman as saying.
Powell had reportedly told Peres it was "urgent for the meeting to take place" and had pressed him to "continue his efforts to establish a cease-fire" between Israel and the Palestinians, according to the spokesman.
Powell's call echoed Peres's position on the issue.
In a protest against Sharon's veto, Peres has confined himself to his residence, the Israeli TV reported on Sunday, adding that he will take some time to think his political future over.
Peres had warned that if Sharon forbids his planned meeting with Arafat at Gaza Airport, the step would result in "severe consequences for the government coalition."
Peres made the statement to Yishai at the weekly cabinet session, which the Jerusalem Post newspaper said was convened at the request of Yishai and far-right National Union Party.
Both demanded that the inner cabinet convene to decide whether the Peres-Arafat meeting could take place, it said.
During an emergency meeting of Labor Party ministers Sunday at the foreign minister's office in Jerusalem, Labor Party ministers were under the impression that Peres would resign from the government if he was not allowed to meet with Arafat within the next two days, Haaretz said.
Peres announced at the meeting his intent to leave for impromptu vacation, but was convinced by the ministers to wait until they had met with the prime minister.
Peres was described by the ministers as "hurt to the depths of his soul" after Sharon instructed him Sunday, for the second time in a week, that he could not meet with Arafat.
During the meeting of Labor ministers, Peres criticized Sharon and said this was not the first time he had heard on the radio that the prime minister "ordered" or "instructed" him not to do something, the paper added.
"His [Sharon's] policy is turning the government into a government of extremists in which the Labor Party has nothing to look for," Peres said. "I have nothing to find in a government where [Uzi] Landau and [Avigdor] Lieberman set the agenda. I cannot be ridiculed before the world when this agreement was not really agreed upon and one's word is not kept."
According to Peres, he is not prepared for "chance gunfire" to be used as an excuse to cancel the meeting for which he worked during last weekend.
Some ministers said to Peres that they would stand behind him, but some of them expressed objections.
According to the paper, almost all of the ministers believe that the national unity government should not be disbanded because of the meeting with Arafat.
Israel Radio reported Sunday night that Sharon had sent his son Omri to meet with Peres in an attempt to solve the coalition crisis.
No further details on the meeting were provided – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
