Palestinians on Sunday cheered an EU call for Middle East peacemaking to focus more on political reconciliation than security while Israelis said it was out of touch with reality.
The European Union statement, at the end of a two-day foreign ministers meeting in Spain on Saturday, differed from the Israeli and US position that almost 17 months of violence should end before peace talk resume.
"It is very important that we go back to putting politics in the center of our discussions on the Middle East," said Josep Pique, foreign minister of current EU president Spain.
"We should advance towards the search for a political solution which cannot be accompanied by 100 percent of absolute security," he said.
Ministers also criticized Israeli confinement of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to the West Bank city of Ramallah since a spate of militant attacks in December.
Arafat spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah called the EU statement "a positive step in support of the peace process."
"It brings down all the Israeli goals of destroying the peace process...It is a message to the Israelis and Americans that they return to a search for peace in the region."
But Israeli officials said the European Union was too forgiving of Arafat and his role in an uprising against Israeli occupation which erupted in September 2000 after peace negotiations stalled.
With US backing, Israel has pledged not to let Arafat out of Ramallah until he reins in Palestinian militants.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Israel's Army Radio: "What concerns me is that there not be a rift between America and Europe. Because Europe is going to support Arafat and so I always suggested our line be against terror and not a person or people or religion".
A senior Israeli official told Reuters Pique's statement was out of touch with Middle East reality.
"We don't believe Arafat is not doing 100 percent + he is not even doing 10 percent," the official said. "Europe does not understand that Arafat is not doing anything to fight terrorism."
Regarding a demand by France that Israel recognize Palestinians' right to statehood before talks resume, the official said "first things first."
"(Israeli) Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said at the end of the process there will be some kind of Palestinian state.
"But first we have to deal with the question of violence, put an end to terrorism and create a climate in which it is possible to have negotiations without fear of bloodshed," the official said.
(China Daily Feburary 11, 2002)
