JERUSALEM — Israel will dismantle only some of the more than 100 West Bank settlement outposts established since violence began 32 months ago, Israeli officials said today, underscoring the difficulty Israelis and Palestinians are having in reaching agreement ahead of a summit with President Bush.
The thorny disputes — over the outposts, a Palestinian crackdown on militant groups and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state — have hampered efforts to agree on a joint declaration at the end of the summit.
Bush pledged today to "put in as much time as necessary" into achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians and help them live side by side.
Bush, in France for the Group of Eight meeting before leaving for two days of talks with Middle East leaders, said he knew it would not be an easy task to end years of hostility in the region. But he told reporters, "I think we'll make some progress. I know we're making progress."
After staying aloof from the Middle East for 18 months as violence between the two sides escalated, Bush became the first president specifically to endorse a Palestinian state. But he said it could come only with a more democratic Palestinian system and without Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the longtime symbol of the Palestinian movement.
The summit Wednesday in Jordan marks the official launch of the U.S.-backed road map to Mideast peace, a plan for ending 32 months of bloody Mideast violence. The road map is a three-phase, three-year plan that envisions the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
A senior Israeli official said today the Israelis and the Palestinians will make separate declarations at the summit: They could not agree on a joint declaration because the Palestinians would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
The Palestinians fear such a recognition would mean abandoning their call for Israel to allow 4 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to former homes in Israel, according to Palestinian officials.
Israel has repeatedly said it would not recognize the so-called Palestinian "right of return," which could wipe out the Jewish majority in Israel.
The Israeli official said Sharon would, however, issue a declaration Wednesday accepting the principle that a Palestinian state should be set up — a remarkable about-face for the hawkish prime minister who has spent decades fighting the Palestinians and opposing the return of land to the Arabs.
Sharon told his Cabinet Sunday he would likely also make a declaration committing Israel to dismantling settlement outposts set up in violation of Israeli law. Stopping settlement construction is a key element of the plan.
According to the Israeli group Peace Now, there are 102 such outposts, 16 of them uninhabited. About 230,000 Jewish settlers live in 150 permanent settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israeli officials said today they did not consider all the outposts illegal and would only dismantle ones not deemed necessary for Israeli security.
In a pre-summit gesture, Israel said it would cancel a closure that has kept all Palestinians, including laborers, out of Israel for more than two weeks. On Sunday, it eased the restrictions slightly allowing several thousand workers to cross into Israel.
About 10,000 crossed into Israel today, according to Israel Radio.
Before violence erupted in September 2000, more than 100,000 Palestinians worked in Israel, providing a key source of income for the Palestinian areas.
In Gaza on Sunday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian they say opened fire on them near the Kissufim crossing point. In another part of Gaza, soldiers critically wounded a 17-year-old Palestinian. The Israeli military had no comment on that incident.