Back to The Drawing Board

IT WAS DESCRIBED AS A "PACKAGE DEAL," THOUGH its real design was to forestall a package of economic sanctions by the U.N. Security Council and return attention to stalled Middle East peace talks. In the first policy shift since their expulsion in December, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin offered to repatriate 101 of 396 Palestinians still stranded in southern Lebanon. The rest, Rabin said, could return after a maximum of one year instead of two.

But Israel's tactic, fashioned in part by Washington, satisfied few outside the Clinton Administration. The deportees held out for full enforcement of Security Council Resolution 799, which demands their immediate and unconditional return. Meeting with American Jewish leaders on Tuesday, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali suggested that the proposal did not satisfy U.N. demands. Back home, Rabin, attacked by the right-wing Likud Party for "capitulation to terrorist organizations, Arab governments and leftist ministers in the Cabinet," told the Knesset that Israel retained the option of deporting more Palestinians.

Amid the diplomatic turmoil, the U.S. postponed peace talks scheduled to resume this week. U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher prepared for a Middle East tour in which he hopes to persuade Arab leaders to return to the negotiating table. Violence in Israeli-occupied Gaza lent new urgency to Christopher's peace mission: Friday was the bloodiest day in nearly two months, with five Palestinians shot dead by Israeli soldiers.