Amid a growing crisis in ties between Israel and its staunchest ally, the US, President Clinton has rejected another request for a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, early next month. Clinton Administration aides are warning that, unless Mr Netanyahu takes concrete steps to advance peace efforts with the Palestinians before the end of the year, the US will abandon its mediation efforts and instead adopt a public stance that blames Israel for the collapse of the peace process.
Mr Clinton snubbed Mr Netanyahu earlier this month when he refused to meet the Israeli leader, claiming he had no time. Yet the US president found a four-hour window in his schedule to receive the former Labour prime minister, Mr Shimon Peres, and Ms Leah Rabin, the widow of Yitzhak Rabin.
Now, White House officials have rejected a new request from Mr Netanyahu for a meeting on December 8th. Veteran Israeli officials say they can recall no precedent for a US president to treat an Israeli prime minister in this way, and ascribe Mr Clinton's stance not merely to his general frustration over Mr Netanyahu's policies with respect to the Palestinians, but especially to the administration's sense of having been misled by the prime minister.
The president apparently understood from Mr Netanyahu that Israel was willing to suspend building at West Bank settlements, but no such building "time out" has been declared.
Ironically, US anger is reaching a peak at the very moment when Mr Netanyahu is trying to move forward with the Palestinians - albeit not as far as Mr Yasser Arafat would wish, and possibly in part to deflect attention from his internal Likud Party difficulties. He has been trying to convince his coalition to support an Israeli pullback from another 6 to 8 per cent of West Bank territory.
However, the US is demanding another 12 per cent, and the Palestinians 30 per cent, while many of Mr Netanyahu's government colleagues are implacably set against any further withdrawal.