Lieberman speaks in favor of Palestinian state

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat expressed reservations Monday about a U.S.-backed Mideast peace plan, while a visiting U.S. senator and key backer of Israel spoke out in favor of a Palestinian state.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said a solution to the Mideast conflict must include a "strong and peaceful" Palestinian state. Lieberman also said Monday he "probably will" run for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He met with Palestinian officials Monday but shunned Arafat.

Also Monday, a top Hamas fugitive, Shaman Sobih, and an accomplice were shot by Israeli troops in what Palestinian security officials said was a targeted killing. The two were riding a tractor when they were ambushed near the West Bank town of Jenin, the officials said. The army declined comment.

In a separate incident, Israeli security agents arrested two Israeli Arabs about the Palestinian terror attack that killed five people in Kibbutz Metzer, northern Israel.

A government statement said the Israeli Arabs had hidden the Palestinian gunman's rifle after the Nov. 10 attack.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government announced it has approved plans to build 232 more homes in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Emmanuel, and that it will invest $2.6 million in tourism projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The projects were approved even as the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators -- the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- pressed ahead with winning Israeli and Palestinian support for a three-phase plan that would culminate with Palestinian statehood by 2005. Among other things, the plan calls for a freeze in Jewish construction in the West Bank and Gaza.

The plan has been circulating for weeks, and over the weekend, Israel and the Palestinians were given a revised version incorporating some of their initial comments. A final plan will be adopted after Israel's Jan. 28 general election.

Arafat, speaking to reporters Monday at his Ramallah headquarters, said he was studying the new proposals. "What we have received is not a final draft, and we still have a lot of reservations," he said. "Israel itself did not accept it yet."

Arafat did not explain what he didn't like in the revised version. The Palestinians have said they accept the plan in principle.

The "road map" to peace calls for internal Palestinian reform, a cease-fire and an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian towns in the first phase. In 2003, a Palestinian state with provisional borders is to be formed, followed by negotiations on a final peace deal that should lead to full Palestinian statehood by 2005.

Israel initially criticized the plan as not insisting enough on Palestinian efforts to fight militant groups. Israel also wanted to defer a freeze in settlement construction.

Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Monday that in the revised version, Israel will not have to withdraw from Palestinian towns until a cease-fire is in place. "There has to be a real fight against terrorism," Gissin said.

Arafat's Fatah movement is renewing Egyptian-backed efforts to persuade Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group to halt attacks on Israeli civilians. Talks are to resume next week in Cairo, and this time Arafat is sending his deputy in the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas, rather than a lower-ranking official as he did last month.

A senior Fatah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hamas has sent signals that it is ready to halt attacks. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal spoke by phone to Arafat last week, the official said.

Lieberman deplored the "desperate human conditions" he witnessed during his tour of the West Bank and said Congress wants help.

"There's strong support for the aspirations of the Palestinian people for independent statehood," he said. "The question is whether there will be sufficient leadership here and in the world to bring this about sooner than later."

Asked if he is likely to run for the 2004 presidential nomination, Lieberman replied, "I probably will, but it's an enormous decision and it has, obviously, a significant impact on my family's life."