AMBASSADOR ITAMAR RABINOVICH: Good afternoon. How are you?

Q: Fine; how are you?

AMB. RABINOVICH: Well, it's a, it's a refreshing change to be in the other entrance, in another capacity, but I'm not relinquishing the peace talks, and at least for a while I'll be wearing these two, these two hats. This is obviously a special day. I think it's, it's important and exciting at any, any given time to begin a tenure in office as Israel's ambassador to the United States, but this is an even more crucial time.

There's a new administration in place, represents new ideas and new approaches. I think that there is an underlying compatibility of interests and outlooks between Israel and the United States, but it needs to be redefined at given junctures, and the inauguration of a new administration is one such juncture.

And we are engaging in a dialogue with the administration to talk about our bilateral relations, about our general view of the world, and more specifically our view of the Middle East and of the peace talks.

This in itself constitutes a very important and heavy agenda. There is a whole host of bilateral issues, and our immediate problems to deal with.

The administration and our government have successfully engaged in trying to deal with the problem of the four hundred. We are on the eve of important visits. Our foreign minister is about to arrive in, in town early next week. The secretary of state is about to leave for the Middle East. The prime minister is about, about to come.

It is going to be a very busy season trying not just to revive the peace process, but to lead it towards takeoff, which I think is eminently feasible in the spring, and I very much look forward to playing a role in all of this.

Q: Mr. Ambassador, traditionally ambassadors get a honeymoon, and I hope you (inaudible).

How are you going to get around this problem of the deportees because the -- Mr. Rabin's offer last week has not been accepted by the deportees themselves or by the Palestinians. So what happens next?

AMB. RABINOVICH: I think the whole point is that there is a -- there's a fundamental error in trying to have the expellees themselves decide what is acceptable and what is not. These people were expelled precisely because they were engaged in trying to sabotage, to derail the peace process.

And to make them the arbiters of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable for renewing the peace process is almost an oxymoron.

I think the important development of the past ten days, or so, was an agreement reached by the U.S. administration and by the Israel government which many have accepted with a sigh of relief, and I think that this needs to be the beacon that should guide us in our way out of this semi-crisis.

Q: Mr. Ambassador, have you heard anything in the last few days through diplomatic, or other channels, that would tell you that the Palestinians, not the deportees, but the Palestinian representatives, like Mrs. Ashrawi, and people in the PLO, are more willing to accept this formula that you've devised for resolving the deportee problems?

AMB. RABINOVICH: I think there were indications that this may very well be the case, but I think that the Palestinian community needs to ask itself whether it is interested in the peace process or not. I think it is. I think the Palestinians came to Madrid, and came to the subsequent rounds of negotiations because they saw important interests to themselves in participating in this peace process, and I think that any peace process and any subsequent peace agreement must be based on a mutuality of enlightened self-interests, and there has to be an enlightened Israeli self-interest, there has to be an enlightened Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian, Lebanese self- interest, and there has to be a meeting of the minds and of, of the interests.

I think, trying to take an objective look at it, that the Palestinians have a stake in the, in the peace process, and I think that it's, it's to their own good, and to everybody's good, that they go by the main chance, and not be derailed by those who precisely are seeking to derail the peace process.

Q: Mr. Ambassador, the Syrians have been surprisingly low-keyed on this whole deportee question. Have you all spoken to them? What is their thinking on it?

AMB. RABINOVICH: No, we -- we have had no, no contact with the Syrians in between rounds. This time, as, as on earlier occasions, but obviously I monitor closely Syrian behavior. The Syrians have made life difficult for us, sometimes, during this crisis, but they have not been zealously active. I think that what I said earlier with regard to the Palestinians holds true with regard to the Syrians.

They are in the peace process because they see a prospect, and they see something good developing for themselves in this peace process. They want to remain in the peace process. They understand that the, the problem of, of the 400 is not a problem of substance, but at the end of the day a technical problem, and they probably have sufficient political maturity as a state to understand that you do not sacrifice substance for a technicality.

Q: Mr. Ambassador, forgive me if you've already answered this question, I apologize because I'm late.

Prime Minister Rabin is reported this evening to have criticized sharply the PLO, and saying that the PLO is an obstacle now to the peace process.

What is your attitude at this point to any revision in the U.S. relationship with the PLO in the context of its relationship with Hamas?

AMB. RABINOVICH: We -- we don't think that any, any revision of the, of U.S. relations with an attitude towards the PLO is called for. We think that nothing of substance has happened in the, in the past couple of months to, to warrant such a change.

As I, as I've just said in response to another question, we are dealing here with a technical question, not with a question of substance, and I don't think that any substantive changes are called for in the present context.

Q: Technically, Mr. Ambassador, do you think these talks can resume with these expellees sitting on their (inaudible)?

AMB. RABINOVICH: Technically of course they can. Politically, media-wise, I'd rather, I'd rather they did not. And I think that the compromise struck between the U.S. and Israel that I've mentioned before provides for ways of enabling the deportees to, to leave that hill, but to go back to a point I made earlier -- we have to bear in mind that we are dealing with a group representing an organization, representing a trend, seeking to derail the talks.

And if they choose to remain on the hill, with a view to obstructing the talks, then we should go on talking, albeit it, or despite the fact that they may be on the hill.

Q: Well, I don't understand, then, how the compromise allows them off the hill, because 100 can come back and the rest will have their turn shortly, for a maximum of one year. Now, if you wanted to start talks in April, then technically these -- it would seem that 300 would still be on the hill.

AMB. RABINOVICH: Technically I know that other governments in other countries are willing to offer facilities that would enable them to, to leave that hill. But at the price of, of repeating myself, they may choose for their own political reasons to stay on that hill, and we should not make the negotiations hostage to that choice of theirs.

Q: Mr. Ambassador, do you foresee any changes in the way the talks are conducted when they resume, either in the rules for their, for their participation in the talks, or in the style of the way they conduct it?

AMB. RABINOVICH: No, I don't think so. I think that for the time-being we will probably continue in the same vein, but hopefully we'll have the breakthrough that we all are waiting for and working for.

And once we have that there will be, and there could be changes in, in format. Let us say that in the Syrian-Israel track we are finally able at some point, in the spring or in the summer to publish a statement of principles. We could then establish working groups and it would be more working groups talking to working groups rather than plenaries to plenaries.

But this has yet to happen I should, I should say.

Q: (inaudible)

AMB. RABINOVICH: At this point I still don't know.

Let me take a few questions in Hebrew and --

Q: (inaudible)

AMB. RABINOVICH: Okay. One more in English and then we'll switch to Hebrew.

Q: Mr. Ambassador, the Israeli press over the weekend reported that the American government has asked the Israeli government to tune down its, its demonstration of satisfaction after the, the compromise that you have reached on the -- is that true? Can you confirm those stories in (inaudible)?

AMB. RABINOVICH: No, I'm, I'm not aware of any, of any such request, nor must I say was there a -- was there a spree of satisfaction. I think that we are dealing with a problem and I think that with -- we have made some progress in dealing with the problem. The problem is still with us as could be evident from earlier questions, and what, what is of interest to us is not to engage in mutual admiration or mutual expressions of satisfaction, but to deal with the problem.

Thank you.

Q: Thank you.