Barak imports U.S. PR team to promote treaty

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Barak is warning Israelis of war and international isolation if the nation fails to achieve a peace treaty with the Palestinians. Fighting for his own political survival, Barak hopes a team of American PR professionals can help promote the last-ditch peace effort of outgoing President Bill Clinton.

Barak said Israel's treaties with Egypt and Jordan would be threatened unless peace is reached with the Palestinians. He said that Israel cannot wait another 5-10 years, when, as he termed it, the Jewish state would face "an entirely new Middle East" with nonconventional weapons and a surge of terrorism.

"We are talking about difficult and intense deliberations on the most painful issues," Barak told his Cabinet. "If an agreement is not reached and the situation deteriorates, cracks will develop in the other peace accords and Israel's isolation will grow against the background of this violence," Middle East Newsline reported.

The prime minister released his statements on Sunday as a team of U.S. public relations executives was scheduled to arrive in Israel in what government sources said will be a campaign to sell any peace treaty to Israelis. Aides to Barak have predicted that an agreement with the Palestinians would lead the transfer of 100 embassies to Jerusalem and win the release of Israeli prisoners in Arab countries.

Barak is said to have agreed to transfer to the Palestinians the entire Gaza Strip, virtually the entire West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.

Clinton's proposals is also said to contain an Israeli agreement for return of up to 250,000 refugees from the 1948 war of independence. The refugees and their ancestors would be settled in the northern Negev.

"We will never concede on our vital interests," Barak said. "At the same time, we must examine every idea worthy of consideration, even if it is painful."

Israeli sources said that under the Clinton proposals the Palestinians will declare an end to their conflict with Israel. But they will be allowed to maintain claims against the Jewish state until all issues are resolved over the next few years.

President Bill Clinton has given Israel and the Palestinian Authority until Wednesday to respond to his bridging proposals on such issues as Jerusalem, borders and Palestinian refugees. Barak convened his senior ministers to discuss Clinton's proposals as Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami urged that they be formally endorsed.

Until then, U.S. officials said, Clinton will not take any further steps. "We will make no decisions until we hear back from the parties," U.S. National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "It's premature to talk about a summit until there is real progress on the substance."