In Mideast, Rice tests diplomatic waters

President Bush's assessment last week that Israeli-Palestinian peace is "within reach" is facing its first diplomatic test as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice engages leaders on both sides over how to build momentum for reconciliation during talks in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Ms. Rice's two-day visit comes just before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas are due to meet Tuesday in their first encounter since the death of Yasser Arafat in November. Adding to optimists' hopes that a new chapter may be beginning, those two leaders will be joined by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is hosting the meeting in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt, and Jordan's King Abdallah.

But beneath the fanfare lie daunting differences both over short-term steps and longer-term goals that highlight the challenges facing US involvement, and at least in the Palestinian view, underscore the importance of heightening it.

"The need is for the United States to be more active, more involved, more visible and more committed," says Mahdi Abdul-Hadi, director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs. The Israeli side, however, does not share that desire if it means pressure to move quickly back to negotiations in accordance with the international peace blueprint known as the road map, Israeli analysts say. The road map calls for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

"In Israel, there is concern that an American mediator will press Israel to help [Abbas] beyond what Sharon is willing, and will weaken the Israeli stance," wrote Aluf Benn in Haaretz in an analysis headlined "Condi go home."

But Ms. Rice was upbeat Sunday night before beginning talks with Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom. "It is a time of optimism because fundamental changes are under way in the Middle East as a whole," she said. New leadership on the Palestinian side and Israel's decision to withdraw from Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank contribute to "the possibility to get back onto the road map and move toward President Bush's vision, which he articulated in June 2002, of two democratic states living side by side in peace."

On Saturday, Rice said that she prefers that the two parties make progress on their own, but that if peace efforts faltered or the US could clinch deals, Washington would be more active.

The need for such shoring up may come sooner rather than later, because the two sides disagree over the very meaning of restarting the peace process. For the Palestinians, such a revival means generous Israeli releases of prisoners among the 7,000 imprisoned Palestinians, steps to improve daily life including lifting movement strictures and a quick restart of negotiations on final status issues of Jerusalem, borders, settlements, and refugees.

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