Given Israel's frequent objections to any plan for outside monitors, the decision by the ministers, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, was seen as reflecting frustration with the disintegrating cease-fire as well as an effort to take a more active role in encouraging peace.
Bush administration policy on peace in the Middle East has evolved significantly in the president's six months in office, moving from a hands-off approach to limited involvement, to brokering the current cease-fire five weeks ago. Just over two weeks ago, on a trip to Jerusalem, Secretary Powell pushed to the next step, saying observers would be needed to monitor a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians, if the two sides would agree to them, and setting a schedule for moving toward political talks.
The wording of the foreign ministers' statement on the monitors, which was attached as an appendix to their official communiqué, was checked by the American delegation with the State Department's senior Middle East experts in Washington, apparently in an effort to ensure that it did not transgress the policies of the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon.
After a news conference at which the communiqué was discussed, a senior administration official said the United States was satisfied with the Middle East statement because a reference to "third party" did not imply that either the United Nations or the European Union would provide the monitors. Israel has consistently objected to "international" monitors but has expressed more willingness to entertain "third party" monitors, the official said. The third-party monitors that Israel would feel most comfortable with would be from the United States, the official added. (and preferably AIPAC members)
But Israeli officials rejected the suggestion, saying that creating a monitoring team would be pointless and even dangerous in the absence of a working cease-fire. "We strongly believe that what we need is not observers but observance, meaning observance on the part of the Palestinians to observe the cease-fire," said Avi Pazner, a government spokesman.
Dore Gold, an adviser to Mr. Sharon, said the Palestinian Authority chairman, Yasir Arafat, would view an observer force as a victory. "There's a danger that Arafat will perceive that his policy of violence has been rewarded, and it will become more difficult to dissuade him from violence in the future," Mr. Gold said.
The Israelis were pleased that the Group of 8 ministers had said Israel and the Palestinians should both agree on this matter. Israel is not automatically opposed to observers, Mr. Pazner said, noting that there are monitors from several countries in Sinai, to help maintain the Egyptian-Israeli peace, and a United Nations force on the Golan Heights, observing a 28-year-old cease-fire between Israel and Syria. But in a situation as volatile as the present one, "it is dangerous, and we think it will make matters worse," he said.
"It is obvious," Mr. Pazner said, "that in the present situation — I stress, the present situation — there is no agreement on the part of Israel to observers."
Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Authority's minister of planning and international cooperation, welcomed the G-8 ministers' call, saying, "Any presence of a third party on the ground is a positive step."
"What is demanded now is that these countries should commit Israel to accept the presence of a third party," Mr. Shaath said. "This was a Palestinian demand for a long time. Now it's gaining international support."
Diplomats said the most spirited exchanges among the foreign ministers, who discussed issues from globalization to arms control, occurred over the Middle East. At the heart of the discussion was how far to go in instructing the two sides to accept monitors as a way to ensure the carrying out of the Mitchell Report, which maps a path to negotiation between Israelis and Palestinians. While the call for monitors was quite strong, it was not as strong as some countries would have liked. "The trick is to persuade the Israelis that monitors are useful," a European diplomat said.
All the foreign ministers, including Igor S. Ivanov of Russia, agreed that the report, written by the former Senator George Mitchell, must form the basis of trying to move the Israelis and Palestinians beyond violence and toward political talks. The plan calls for an end to the violence, followed by a period in which both sides would take steps to rebuild trust between them. The final phase would be a return to peace negotiations <snip the rest, except this choice, 'illuminating' tidbit>
"In an effort to breathe new life into the summit meeting, the so-called Shadow Group of Eight, a collection of foreign policy luminaries, including Henry A. Kissinger and Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, called on the G-8 nations to include less-developed countries like China, Brazil and India in their meetings. Embracing those regional powers is seen as helping answer the concerns of protesters worried about the ill effects of globalization as well as promoting progress in fighting poverty and expanding trade. A Bush administration official said today that the United States was opposed to expanding the G-8 any further."