President Clinton sent envoy Dennis Ross to try to stop the rioting and bloodshed that started after Israel broke ground for construction of a Jewish neighborhood in disputed east Jerusalem.
But Palestinians have grown suspicious of America's motives in peacemaking, because it blocked U.N. Security Council censure of the housing project.
Supporters of Yasser Arafat led protests here and in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, hurling stones and bottles at Israeli soldiers. Soldiers responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, injuring 20 Palestinians.
Israel demanded Ross tell Arafat to rein in the violence - both the daily rioting in the West Bank and terror attacks, such as a suicide bombing that killed three Israeli women at a Tel Aviv cafe Friday.
"Terrorists will always have a grievance, (but) terrorism cannot exist in a vacuum, it needs a sponsoring government," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a conference on terrorism. "They have chosen to use terrorism as a weapon of political coercion."
Israel also offered an incentive to the Palestinians, with Netanyahu aide David Bar-Illan suggesting in an interview with The Associated Press that Israel might ease its closure of the West Bank if Palestinian security officials resume cooperative efforts to block terrorist attacks on Israelis. Israel imposed the closure, which keeps tens of thousands of workers from jobs in Israel, after the bombing. The gap between Israelis and Palestinians appeared far more difficult to bridge than the last time Ross visited the region, when he brokered Israel's military withdrawal in January from most of the West Bank town of Hebron.
"The tensions between the Palestinians and Israelis have reached a very, very serious level, said Edward Abington, the U.S. counsel-general in Jerusalem and unofficial ambassador to Arafat's self-rule government
In an AP interview, Abington said President Clinton sent Ross because communication between the Israelis and Palestinians was faltering and the ''level of trust has gone down."
"Everybody in the world who's worked for peace in the Middle East is concerned about this," Clinton said.
at the White House yesterday.
Ross was to arrive late yesterday in Rabat, Morocco, for a meeting with Arafat before traveling to Israel. Arafat and foreign ministers from 13 Islamic nations were to meet today in Rabat on the disputed status of Jerusalem.
Palestinians demanded that Ross extract a promise from Netanyahu that Israel would halt the building of Jewish settlements on Arab land.
AP PHOTO
Palestinians burn Israeli and American flags in Bethlehem yesterday during a demonstration prior to clashes between Palestinian and Israeli troops.