Middle East Ready to Deal?

A P.L.O. aide stirs a furor by urging direct talks with Israel

In the Middle East proposing peace can be a dangerous move. That lesson was forcefully driven home last week when bitter feuding broke out among Palestinian factions over an unusually conciliatory statement written by Bassam Abu Sharif, chief spokesman for Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat. Abu Sharif's key proposals: 1) direct negotiations between the P.L.O. and Israel over a future Palestinian state, and 2) a referendum in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to prove that their Palestinian populations recognize the P.L.O. as their legitimate representative.

The statement was distributed in early June at the Arab summit in Algiers...

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