ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan. 23 - Burg To Address Legislature In Ramallah.

On a joint visit with PA speaker Ahmad Korei to Paris, Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg says he will accept an invitation to address the PA legislative council in Ramallah. Burg, a Labour Party member, says: "I will go any place where it is possible to talk peace, to present the Israeli position to the Palestinians. Nothing should deter a lover of peace and seeker of peace from doing something that might remove one more death and grief from our agenda. No one should refuse such an invitation". (This comes despite opposition from PM Sharon, who in December vetoed plans for Pres. Moshe Katzav to address the PA legislature and call for a truce. Responding to Burg's move, Sharon said his visit to the PA legislature would "certainly" cause Israel political damage. Sharon has argued against any conciliatory gestures to the PA, accusing it of failing to crack down on militant groups. Meanwhile, two Israeli women died of wounds sustained on Jan. 22 in Jerusalem. In Nablus, thousands of angry mourners chanting for revenge marched in a funeral for three of four Hamas members killed on Jan. 22).

Burg says: "There are almost no voices being heard from the Israeli centre that are saying let's try to talk peace anyway. The only cycle we know is the cycle of revenge and reaction and retaliation and punishment. This terrible circle, where one day they attack us and the next day we strike them, more and more funerals - in the end both we and they will understand that force won't solve this problem". He asserts that as the head of the Knesset he could act independently of Sharon. But rightist members of the Knesset accused Burg of misrepresenting the legislature, and they demanded that it approve his visit first. Likud MP Michael Eitan said: "It's impossible for one country to have two foreign policies - one run by the government and a contradictory one followed by Parliament". Likud minister Danny Naveh accused Burg of undermining government policy, saying at a time when "we are struggling to pressure and isolate Arafat", it was unfortunate that Burg was "helping Arafat get free of this pressure". US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer urged ordinary Israelis and Palestinians to press their governments to stop the violence, instead of relying on the US or other mediators to resolve the conflict. He said: "If the people, the Israelis and Palestinians, do not put pressure on their governments to solve it, it doesn't matter who you get as a third party. It's going to take a concerted effort on the part of people on both sides, Israelis and Palestinians, to persuade their respective governments that the time has come to stop this. They need to hear from you that you want peace, that you want reconciliation, that you want reasonable compromise. Let the governments know that you are here".