US bears down on Mideast

Mohammed Rashid, a top adviser to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, says the two sides "are reaching more political and psychological balance to sit down and deal."

"It's clear today that the roots of the problem are political and the discussions should be political, not only about security," Mr. Rashid says.

"I think that's exaggerated," counters Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Sharon and a former Israeli ambassador to the US. "There is absolutely no feeling that we should go in the direction of what Arafat wants to achieve."

No matter what Sharon himself might be inclined to do, he must contend with a largely hawkish Cabinet that mostly favors sterner military action against the Palestinians, not moves toward conciliation.

The contrast between the views of Shoval and Rashid illustrates the core question Zinni will face: whether it is possible to try to pacify the two sides on Israeli terms - by discussing security alone - or whether it is necessary to address the Palestinians' insistence that the process of reaching a cease-fire includes political components, such as a timeline for the creation of a Palestinian state.

In his earlier attempts to reach a cease-fire, which began last November, Zinni appeared to diplomats he encountered to concentrate almost exclusively on pressuring Mr. Arafat to enforce his cease-fire commitments. "[Zinni] had limited parameters; I won't say he had no discretion," says the European diplomat.

His observation is backed up by two other diplomats familiar with Zinni's earlier missions. What is unstated is the source of those parameters: presumably, officials in the Bush administration.

But there are indications that the administration is rethinking its backing for the Israeli leader. Such a reassessment might provide Zinni with more legroom to deal with the Israelis.

Sharon seems to have alarmed the US by saying aloud that the Palestinians must be "hit" or "beaten" until they call for a cease-fire, and then following up those words with continuous, large-scale military operations. Secretary Powell said last week that he didn't know where such a strategy might lead.

Mr. Bush seconded that criticism Thursday by saying of Sharon: "I think he recognizes that you can't achieve peace by allowing violence to escalate or causing violence to escalate."

These comments may be driven by concern over the scale of violence now taking place between the Israelis and the Palestinians and how that might affect other US policy goals in the Middle East, such as the move against Iraq.

But it may be that people in Washington, says the US official, "see that the Israeli body politic sees itself on a road to nowhere ... and that makes it easier for them to take a new tone themselves."

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