Message to U.S.

GAZA: Yasser Arafat is sending a strong signal that U.S. envoy Dennis Ross better come armed with concrete proposals to move peace talks forward when he arrives in the Middle East Tuesday. In a none-to-subtle push to get the Clinton Administration to aggressively work with Benjamin Netanyahu on a peace settlement, Arafat told reporters he didn't think Ross would bring any new suggestions to the table. "Naturally, the Palestinians are hoping the Americans will come with a fairly aggressive and dynamic proposal which will break the deadlock," reports TIME's Scot MacLeod. "But since this hasn't happened in the past, they're disillusioned and skeptical. When they see another mission by Clinton's mediator, their reaction is to pour cold water him before the mission gets off the ground. It's a diplomatic way of indirectly complaining to Washington that it has failed to come up with the pressure on Israel the Palestinians would like to see."