Barak calls peace 'time-out'; Arafat tells him to 'go to hell'

JERUSALEM - Ehud Barak called for a peace ''time-out'' and Yasser Arafat told him to ''go to hell.'' The Israeli and Palestinian leaders seemed further than ever Sunday from the peace their U.S. and Egyptian sponsors have tried so hard to salvage.

The violence in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip showed no signs of abating, and the cease-fire called during last week's peace summit was little more than a memory.

In the fiercest fighting in the Jerusalem environs since clashes broke out on Sept. 28, Israeli helicopter gunships rocketed the Palestinian-held village of Beit Jalla. Some Palestinian homes were leveled. Electricity and phone lines were down, and Palestinians said the power plant had been hit.

The three hours of fighting started when Palestinian gunmen in Beit Jalla and in Bethlehem opened fire on residential apartment buildings in Gilo, a suburb of Jerusalem, and Israeli police returned tank, machine-gun and helicopter rocket fire.

The army said it warned residents of targeted areas in Beit Jalla to evacuate before it launched its counterattack. Gilo residents gathered in the streets to watch and cheered each hit.

Next to a church in the largely Christian village, the gate to the Dabdoub family home was damaged.

Inside, 10-year-old Dalia shuddered beneath the folds of a blanket, huddling next to her mother. Abdullah Dabdoub said he was considering taking his wife and daughters and leaving the region.

''They could cut off our electricity, they could cut off our water, they could starve us to death,'' he said.

Bullets entered some homes in Gilo. Families with small children fled to homes of neighbors with apartments facing away from the Palestinian-controlled areas.

Toting his two-year old daughter beneath his arms, Yair Peretz tracked a bullet's trajectory for a TV crew. ''It came in here, whizzed over her head here on the couch, where she was sitting,'' he said, referring to the girl, ''and came out here.''

Elsewhere, four Palestinians died in clashes, including two teen-age Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and two Palestinian men near the West Bank town of Hebron. Stone-throwing clashes were reported in several chronic trouble spots in Gaza and the West Bank. That left a total of 121 dead - the vast majority Palestinian - in more than three weeks of violence.

''We need to have a time-out ... to reassess the peace process in light of the events of the last few weeks,'' Barak told his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday.

''One would have to be blind to security and political needs to continue as if nothing has changed,'' he said.

A statement issued by Barak's office did not say how long the ''time-out'' would last. Israeli negotiators would refuse to meet with their Palestinian counterparts until the time-out was lifted.

Arafat, speaking after returning Sunday from a two-day Arab summit in Cairo, said the Palestinian state would come - with or without the peace process, or Barak's approval.

''My response (to the time-out) is, our people is continuing their road to Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state,'' he said. Whether Barak accepts that or not, Arafat said - in English - ''Let him go to hell.''

The intensification of the rhetoric came despite efforts by Egypt and the United States - the principal sponsors of Israel and the Palestinians, respectively - to salvage the peace process.

Egypt and the United States convened the summit last week at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh that ended with a cease-fire declaration. The Americans said they would continue to work toward bringing the sides together.

President Clinton was trying to reach Barak, said a White House spokesman traveling with him in New York. Clinton is still focused on getting the parties to stick to the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement ''to get us past the immediate violence,'' spokesman Elliot Diringer said.

Egypt, meanwhile, headed off an Arab summit declaration that would mandate breaking off ties with Israel, effectively declaring the peace process dead.

Arab nations ''hold Israel responsible for any steps taken in regard to relations with Israel by Arab countries, including their cancellation,'' said the final declaration of the Cairo summit.

That fell short of efforts by radicals for a clear-cut call for ending ties with Israel - and left intact Egypt's moderating role in the region.

Barak thanked the Egyptians for moderating the summit but rejected the overall tone of the gathering.

''Israel rejects, truly categorically, the language of threats which emanated from the summit and condemns the call, implicit in the resolutions, for continuation of the violence,'' he told reporters.

Barak has indicated that if the peace process fails, he would take unilateral steps to separate Israelis from the Palestinians by building a border between Israeli-held portions of the West Bank and those areas controlled by Palestinians.

The Palestinians say that shows bad will.

''We got his message and in spite of the balanced, peaceful method of the Arab summit, he sent a message of war - unilateral solutions,'' said Arafat's information minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo.

The United States, Israel's main backer, warned against unilateral acts.

''Israelis and Palestinians are bound, even condemned, to live together, side by side,'' said U.S. Ambassador Martin Indyk.

Israeli officials said any peace breakdown was Arafat's fault for not adhering to the latest cease-fire.

''We returned home; the violence only increased,'' Gilead Sher, Barak's chief of staff, told The Associated Press. ''We found ourselves faced with a Palestinian Authority that does not want, or is not able, or both, to take control of the mob.''

Barak accelerated efforts to bring the hard-line opposition leader Ariel Sharon into his teetering government before parliament reconvenes next week - an alliance that would likely chill for months efforts at reviving the peace process. It was Sharon's Sept. 28 visit to a Jerusalem shrine holy to Muslims and Jews that sparked the violence.