What Influence Buying?

JERUSALEM: Trying to salvage an Israeli-Palestinian peace process that is nearly dead after Friday's Tel Aviv bombing, President Clinton ordered top Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross back to Israel to spark talks between Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat. First on Ross' agenda: a meeting in Morocco with Arafat to persuade the Palestinian leader to agree to face to face talks with Netanyahu. Ross reportedly will push for a similar committment when he meets with Netanyahu on Friday. It will be a tough act to pull off. News of Ross' mission brought no break in the fingerpointing over who is responsible for the Tel Aviv explosion that killed three Israeli women. While Israel charges that Arafat allowed extremist groups to carry out the attack, Arafat says that they acted on their own, prompted by Israeli work on building a new Jewish neighborhood in a part of east Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians. But whether Arafat ordered the attack is not the point, notes TIME's Johanna McGeary: "While Arafat has publicly stood up and made pleas for nonviolent, peaceful protests, he has also allowed dozens of Hamas activists, including their operations chief, to go free." To that end, a top priority for Ross will be to persuade Arafat to issue a statement calling for Palestinian militants to halt attacks. It will be a tough case to sell: a top Palestinian official says the plea will be pointless unless Ross can also halt Israel's east Jerusalem settlement drive.