WASHINGTON: Frustrated by a stalemate in Middle East peacemaking, the Bush administration is encouraging Israelis and Palestinians who are trying to bypass their leaders with a peace plan that calls for large territorial concessions by Israel.

After dismissing the private, largely symbolic negotiations for weeks, the administration suddenly is eagerly endorsing the effort.

Some American analysts said they view the surprising US moves as a way of prodding Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to get busy on a moribund US-backed roadmap for peacemaking with the Palestinians.

"They are trying to send a message to Sharon, without saying so explicitly," said former US mediator Dennis Ross.

"It does reflect a deep concern," said former Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk, referring to the virtual halt to any active US diplomacy.

There are two parallel, private efforts under way, and both suddenly have the administration's blessing.

One is a petition that Israeli administrator Ami Ayalon and Palestinian professor Sari Nusseibeh have circulated. It calls on Israel to give up all the territory the Arabs lost in the 1967 Middle East war and turn the land over to the Palestinians.

Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, in a speech in Washington this week, disclosed he had met with Ayalon and Nusseibeh. Praising their campaign, Wolfowitz said, "As Americans, we know there are times when great changes can extend from the grass roots."

In a second, more significant effort, former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo held private talks and came up with a plan for a Palestinian state on nearly all of the West Bank and Gaza. Most Jewish settlers would be uprooted.

The plan also would give Palestinians control of a disputed holy shrine in Jerusalem's walled Old City, an elevated mosque compound that was once home to the biblical Jewish temples. In return, Palestinians would give up their demand for the "right of return" of about 4 million Palestinian war refugees and their descendants to Israel.

Sharon has sharply attacked the Israelis involved in that effort, saying they had no right to go behind the back of the government to make concessions, even in a symbolic deal.

These unauthorized negotiations drew virtually no official US attention until Secretary of State Colin Powell responded with encouragement Tuesday to a letter from Beilin and Rabbo.

"Dear Yossi and Yasser," Powell wrote, "The United States remains committed to the president's two-state vision and to the roadmap, but we also believe that projects such as yours are important in helping sustain an atmosphere of hope."

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday that Powell wanted to "express appreciation" for their efforts. "The United States is always encouraged when there is discussion," he said.

Responding to questions, Boucher said the administration was not engaged in "some kind of end run around leaders in the region."

Nor, he said, did the praise undercut the US-backed roadmap for peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians.

Former American negotiators and ex-diplomats are intrigued with the developments.

Ross, the top US mediator for 12 years, said he believes Powell was trying to inspire Sharon to get started on "diplomacy of his own" by praising alternative efforts. "They (Powell and Wolfowitz) are trying to create more formal efforts," he said.

Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel and a member of former President Bill Clinton's negotiating team, said he believes Powell's letter "reflects a deep concern that with nothing happening, the prospects for President Bush's vision of a two-state solution could also start to disappear."

But, he said of the letter, "it's a weak substitute for doing something serious."

Edward S. Walker, a former US ambassador to Egypt and Israel, said the letter encouraging private negotiations "could be easily interpreted as a signal to Sharon."

"It may help shake up the political process in Israel," he told.

Walker, president of the Middle East Institute, a private research group, said the idea originated with State Department officials who felt "we hadn't responded to what was a very forthcoming effort by a couple of private individuals."

Another analyst, Judith Kipper of the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that Bush's team would have nothing to do with the Clinton administration's peacemaking efforts. But now, she said, by encouraging Israelis and Palestinians working on a peace plan, it is recapturing Clinton diplomacy.

(China Daily November 10, 2003)