THE MIDDLE EAST

By Lisa Beyer

In strictly private negotiations, there is really no point in striking dramatic poses and demanding the impossible. So in recent communications with the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat didn't do any posturing and didn't ask Netanyahu to cancel his plan to build Har Homa, a new Jewish settlement in mostly Arab East Jerusalem. Instead, Arafat settled for the art of the possible: he requested that Netanyahu put the project on hold, maybe for six months or so, to allow Palestinian and Israeli negotiators to nudge the stymied peace process forward. Earlier this month Netanyahu agreed. He informed Arafat that he would temporarily stop work on the 6,500 apartments on the hill the Arabs call Jabal Abu Ghneim. Just how long would this diplomatic pause last? Five days. Even God needed six days to create the earth. "It seemed like a silly joke," says an American official, "only it was true." Arafat was outraged and, according to his colleagues, saw the offer as an insult. Whether or not Netanyahu calculated it to be one, it was a perfect demonstration of the way things are going in the so-called Middle East peace process.

--By Lisa Beyer