ARABS-ISRAEL - Aug. 19 - New Peace Summit Ruled Out.

Israel and the Palestinians accuse each other of inflexibility, ruling out a new peace summit if neither side gives ground on the issues in their 52-year-old conflict. Israel's acting FM Shlomo Ben Ami says if Palestinian Pres. Arafat did not show flexibility there would not be a follow-up summit to July's failed Camp David talks. Ben-Ami, who is also Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, tells army radio: "I don't see any chance for a summit, I don't see any chance for an agreement if there isn't real flexibility on the other side". But senior Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo says Israel was being inflexible by demanding to annex large parts of the West Bank and sovereignty over most of Jerusalem. He says: "The Israelis think they can outsmart the whole world by claiming they were flexible while we were the hard-liners". Although 15 days of intensive, secluded US-sponsored talks at Camp David ended without an agreement in July, negotiators have been meeting informally since the summit's failure but have reported no progress. US ME envoy Ross is in the region trying to forge a deal by a Sept. 13 deadline for a final peace. On Aug. 19, he arrives in Egypt to update FM Mussa on his most recent meetings. The sides are trying to resolve sensitive issues in their conflict, including the fate of Jerusalem, which proved to be the biggest obstacle to peace at Camp David. (Israel captured Jerusalem in the 1967 ME war declaring the city its "united, eternal capital" in a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians want Arab East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands also occupied by Israel in 1967.) After holding separate meetings with Ross on Aug. 18, Israel's PM Barak and senior Palestinian negotiator Erekat both dismissed chances of holding another peace summit soon. (Palestinian officials have said that the US would like to host another summit some time in September.)

Ben Ami says Arafat has to decide whether he wants to go down in history as someone who ended his people's national and economic struggle or as someone who failed because of a disagreement over one area in Jerusalem's Old City. (Palestinian officials have said that Arafat rejected Israeli and American proposals to divide East Jerusalem and place Muslim holy shrines under Israeli sovereignty. They said there was no way they could have accepted the ideas.) Arafat, who arrived in Gaza from a tour of some Asian states seeking support for his peace moves, says the sides have to resolve the issue of Jerusalem before they can talk about ending their conflict. Arafat says: "Before he [Barak] ends the conflict, [he must resolve] the most important issue of Jerusalem, which is not only important to the Palestinian people, but also to the Arab states, and to the Christians and Muslims".