THE MIDDLE EAST: As the US peace envoy, Mr Anthony Zinni, began talks in Israel last night, it emerged that his four-day mission is unlikely to yield a formal Israeli-Palestinian truce or the adoption of proposals for an eventual return to the negotiation table. David Horovitz, in Jerusalem, reports.
Indeed, the early signs are that Israel wants Mr Zinni to use his visit solely to pressurise the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, into deepening his crackdown on Hamas and Islamic Jihad, while the limit of Mr Arafat's hope is that the envoy will help him extricate himself from virtual Israeli house arrest in Ramallah.
The Israeli army yesterday withdrew its forces from Palestinian territory in Jenin and Nablus and parts of Ramallah, while still keeping those cities blockaded, and lifted its blockades around Tulkarm, Qalkilya and Hebron. The moves were timed to coincide with Mr Zinni's arrival, and designed to demonstrate a willingness to preserve the recent relative calm in the area.
There were faint hints, too, that the army might be ready to suspend its policy of killing alleged intifada kingpins inside Palestinian territory, although it continues to send in troops to arrest alleged militants - five of whom were captured in two raids yesterday. Tellingly, the army maintained its presence in the northern Ramallah area adjacent to Mr Arafat's offices.
Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, has said that Mr Arafat will not be permitted to leave the town until he arrests the two gunmen, from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who assassinated Israel's minister of tourism in October.
A derisive Mr Arafat yesterday mocked reports that Israel was easing freedom of movement for Palestinians, inviting journalists to take a walk "outside my office to the places Israel says are open, and see if it is true or not".
But while his immediate surroundings were indeed still under Israeli watch, the tanks were rolling back and the concrete barriers were being removed in many other West Bank areas. Aides to Mr Arafat are describing these Israeli measures as a "fake withdrawal" designed to fool Mr Zinni. Aides to Mr Sharon are adamant that it is Mr Arafat's moves against the extremists that are fake - and claim he has reached agreements with them to temporarily hold their fire, not stop attacks permanently.
Mr Dan Meridor, a minister from the Centre Party, said yesterday that Mr Arafat "had made a start" in the battle against the Islamic fundamentalists. "But they're still preparing rockets and stockpiling weapons. Their fingers are still on the triggers."
Palestinian Authority ministers want Mr Zinni to announce the start of implementation of CIA chief George Tenet's truce plan, and then move on to the US-backed Mitchell Commission proposals for a return to the collapsed peace process. Mr Saeb Erekat, the former chief Palestinian negotiator, points out that there is no provision for "seven days of quiet" as demanded by Mr Sharon as a precursor to such progress, in either of these plans, and that, in any case, it has effectively been fulfilled by the dramatic recent fall in the level of intifada violence.
Mr Shimon Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister, thinks so too. Mr Sharon does not, and will make this clear, in Mr Peres's presence, at the breakfast he is hosting for Mr Zinni this morning.
In any case, it seems likely that Mr Zinni will confine himself to convening a meeting of Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs on Sunday, before his departure, and will then monitor events from home before deciding whether and when to make a return visit.