PAGE 2
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 2,1996
Arafat, Netanyahu meet privately at summit
Middle East leaders
gather in Washington
to resolve a faltering
peace.
By Babby Schweid
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pal
estinian leader Yasser Arafat met face
to-face over lunch Monday at the
White House.
The Mideast summit, hosted by
President Clinton, was held against a
backdrop of mistrust and violence.
White House spokesman Mike
McCurry, reporting on Clin tern’s sum
mit talks on the faltering peace process
and a spate of violence last week, said
“it was clear they could work together
and have the kind of dialogue that
could resolve their differences.”
The two feuding Middle East .lead
ers also shook hands and exchanged
pleasantries in the White House
Roosevelt Room before a session with
Clinton in the Oval Office.
Even while registering a sharp
change in the atmosphere from the
gloom the administration projected
before the summit, McCurry also said
“they are not at the point yet that they
are tabling proposals.”
Clinton and King Hussein of Jor
dan left the room so Netanyahu and
Arafat could have their discussions in
private, the White House official said.
“A great deal of anger, frustration,
suspicion had begun to permeate the
atmosphere,” McCurry said. But over
lunch, he said, “the discussions have
gone a long way to re-establishing the
notion of trust” that led Israel and the
Palestinian Authority into interim
settlements three years ago.
The lunch was in the White House
library, while Secretary of State War
ren Christopher met across Pennsylva
nia Avenue in Blair House with senior
Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Clinton was prepared to intervene,
if asked, McCurry said, but added that
the one-on-one approach is the best
way to proceed.
At the outset, no one-on-one en
counter between Netanyahu and Arafat
was planned. The White House said it
would not disclose much about the
talks while they are underway.
The distrust between the two lead
ers is so intense they are barely on
speaking terms, a senior administration
official said Monday at the State De
partment.
“We can help them, but we can’t
make decisions for them,” said the of
ficial.
The summit arranged by Clinton is
both unstructured and politically risky.
There is no guarantee Netanyahu and
Arafat will find a formula to end vio
lence on the West Bank and in Gaza.
If Clinton tries to push Netanyahu
into concessions to the Palestinian
Authority, he runs a political risk five
weeks before the presidential election.
If he pressures Arafat, he risks alienat
ing the Arabs.
“We are at a very difficult moment,”
the White House spokesman cautioned.
“We have not passed through the cri
sis.”
McCurry underscored Clinton was
not applying pressure to Netanyahu.
“Pressure does not work in the Middle
East peace process; it never has,” he
said.
“What we have to do is to create
understanding between parties,” the
spokesman said.
McCurry said Clinton’s conversa
tion with Netanyahu was very warm.
“It was clear from the body language
of the two they enjoyed their conver
sation,” he said.
With the presidential election five
weeks away, Republican candidate
Bob Dole and GOP congressional
leaders have urged Clinton not to back
Netanyahu into a comer or to isolate
the Israeli leader.
McCurry also spoke warmly of
Arafat, saying “the president has a great
deal of respect for the chairman.”
While giving few details, tho
spokesman indicated Netanyahu’s pro
posal for opai-ended Israeli-Palestin
ian negotiations after the summit was
taken up by Clinton.
“There are a number of ideas ad
vanced by all of the parties,” he said.
“There are substantive discussions of
that nature.”
Supreme Court to decide
on doctor-assisted suicides
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Su
preme Court agreed Tuesday to decide
whether states may ban doctor-assisted
suicides, setting the stage for a momen
tous ruling on the “right to die.”
Hie court said it will decide by July
whether doctors can be barred from
actually giving life-ending drugs to
mentally competent, terminally ill pa
tients who no longer want to live. The
decision will come six years after the
court recognized a constitutional right
to refuse lifesaving treatment.
Most states have such laws, but
lower courts this year struck down as
sisted-suicide bans imposed by New
York and Washington state. By review
ing those two rulings, the justices are
expected to set national guidelines.
“This is one of those watershed le
gal issues that will be out there until
the nation’s highest court makes a de
cision,” Washington Attorney General
Christine Gregoire said after learning
of the court’s action.
Susan Dunshee, president of
Seattle’s Compassion in Dying group
that successfully challenged the Wash
ington law, said the court now has “an
opportunity (to benefit patients through
out the country.”
The constitutional right to die was
first recognized by the Supreme Court
in 1990. Assuming that such a right
exists, the justices said then that a ter
minally ill person may refuse life-sus
taining medical treatment.
Just last year, however, the justices
rejected a challenge by Dr. Jack
Kevorkian to Michigan’s ban on as
sisted suicide.
One of Kevorkian’s lawyers and the
prosecutors who three times tried un
successfully to have him convicted of
helping someone commit suicide said
the lower court rulings will be over
turned.
“They took the two cases that sup
paled Kevorkian’s view so they could
overturn them,” Kevorkian attorney
Geoffrey Fieger said. %
“It is my prediction that the court
will reverse (the New York and Wash
ington) decisions and allow individual
states to make political decisions based
on policy rather than the Constitution,”
prosecutor Richard Thompson said.
The generally conservative high
court may choose to overturn the ap
peals courts’ rulings, said Howard
Simon of the American Civil Liberties
Union in Michigan.
“There is just as much danger that
they’re going to do violence to the
rights of Americans as they are likely
to protect the rights of Americans,”
Simon said.
Like abortion, the right to die is the
kind of emotional powder keg the court
tries hard to avoid.
In fact, Justice Antonin Scalia told
a college audience in Virginia last April
that assisted suicide is not a question
the Supreme Court should decide.
“Why would you leave that to nine
lawyers, for heaven’s sake?” Scalia
asked students at Bridgewater College.
“It’s better to let the people decide.”
A month earlier, the 9th U.S. Cir
cuit Court of Appeals had struck down
the Washington law that barred doc
tor-assisted suicide, ruling it violates
due-process rights.
In the New York case, the 2nd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in April
struck down two laws that barred doc
tor-assisted suicide, ruling that they un
constitutionally failed to treat people
equally.
It is discriminatory, the appeals
court said, to refuse to let terminally
ill patients end their lives with medi
cation, yet allowing other dying pa
tients to end their lives by granting their
requests that life-support systems be
disconnected.
Both states appealed.
Kaczynski indicted by grand jury
Death penalty option to be explored by prosecutors
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Theodore Kaczynski, the math profes
sor turned hermit, was indicted Mon
day by a federal grand jury in the
Unabomber mail borhb attack that
killed an advertising executive in New
Jersey in 1994.
Already charged with seven other
Unabomber bombings in five states,
Kaczynski was named in three counts
returned by a grand jury in Newark,
NJ., in the Dec. 10, 1994, killing of
adman Thomas J. Mosser.
The Justice Department, which an
nounced the action in Washington, said
that it intends to prosecute the New
Jersey indictment after completion of
Kaczynski’s impending trial in Sacra
mento, Calif. _
The 54-year-old former Berkeley
math professor pleaded innocent in
June to a 10-count federal indictment
returned in California. It charged him
with four bombings that killed com
puter store owner Hugh Scrutton in
1985 and timber industry lobbyist Gil
bert Murray in 1995 and maimed Uni
versity of California geneticist Charles
Epstein and Yale computer expert
David Gelemter in 1993. _
Arrested by federal- agents at his
remote Montana cabin last April 3 af
ter an 1 8-year investigation, Kaczynski
was charged by the grand jury in New
ark with transporting the bomb that
killed Mosser from Montana to San
Francisco and then mailing it to
Mosser’s home in North Caldwell, N J.
When Mosser opened the package, it
exploded.
Like the charges in Sacramento, the
first two counts in New Jersey carry a
possible death penalty. The third New
Jersey count carries a mandatory, con
secutive sentence of 30 years in prison.
Federal judge rejects Perots request;
Reform Party still banned from debates
WASHINGTON (AP)—A federal
judge Monday rejected Ross Perot's
bid to be included in Sunday’s presi
dential debate, ruling that the court
lackedjurisdiction over such events.
U.S. District Judge Thomas F.
Hogan rejected efforts by Perot’s Rev
form Party and the Natural Law Party
for inunctions to force the Presiden
tial Debate Commission to include
their candidates in the two presiden
tial debates.
Hogan said the complaints belong
with the Federal Election Commission.
“Ibis court, and other courts, have
ruled the FEC is bound by tfa
cedures and must follow then
ruled.
Although Perot’s
they would appeal, Hoga
of the complaint dealt a _____
to Perot’s hopes of being included in
Sunday’s debate in Hartford, Conn.
Spending bill passed
by Senate, president
The $389 billion
measure has money
for education and
drug-fighting
programs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With
just hours to spare Monday, the Sen
ate passed and President Clinton
signed a $389 billion spending bill
for scores of federal agencies and a
tightening of immigration laws, the
Republican-led 104th Congress’
last major legislation.
Clinton signed the measure two
hours short of Tuesday’s start of the
1997 fiscal year, ensuring there
would be no repeat of last year’s
partial government shutdown when
agencies’ spending authority
lapsed.
The catch-all bill, approved 84
15 by the Senate in early evening,
contains $6.5 billion in extra money
that Clinton demanded for educa
tion, drug-fighting and other pro
grams and pushes overall spending
nearly as high as it was before Re
publicans captured Congress two
years ago.
It also drops GOP-written immi
gration provisions the White House
argued were too severe, such as one
barring federally paid AIDS care for
illegal immigrants.
In a signing statement, Clinton
called the omnibus bill “good for
America,” because it ensures sub
stantial amounts of money for edu
cation and training, environmental
protection and law enforcement.
“It moves us further toward our
goal of a balanced budget while pro
tecting our values and priorities—
educating our children, providing a
clean environment, fighting crime,
protecting our families from drugs,
and combating terrorism,” he said.
However, the president said he
was disappointed that the bill did
not include one of his priorities, a
ban on physician “gag rules” that
would have given doctors in man
aged-care programs the freedom to
inform their patients of a wider
range of medical treatment options.
“Several states have passed
similar legislation,” Clinton said,
“and Congress should have reached
agreement on this measure.”
Republicans said the two-year
Congress had stayed the budget-cut
ting course the GOP had promised,
even though the White House won
extra spending in round-the-clock
talks that ended at dawn Saturday.
In an election-year drive to
soften their image, Republicans
used the legislation to restore spend
ing for programs they had tried to
cut since last year. .
Republicans used much of the
restored money for popular pro
grams.
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