JERUSALEM -- In some of their toughest negotiations yet, Israel is telling the Palestine Liberation Organization to choose between national elections that would install the first democratically chosen Palestinian government and the early withdrawal of Israeli troops from West Bank towns and villages.
"We need the elections for our political credibility, but how much credibility will we have if Israeli soldiers are still present and continuing their occupation -- but by our agreement?" a senior Palestinian negotiator said late last week, after three days of talks in Cairo.
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat is nonetheless moving toward accepting the continued deployment of Israeli forces on the West Bank, including some major towns such as Hebron, in order to get the election this spring of a legislative council, Palestinian sources said.
Mr. Arafat's decision will probably come in key meetings over the next 10 days with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
According to Israeli and Palestinian officials, they will attempt to agree on goals and timetables for their negotiating teams in Cairo.
Uri Savir, Israel's chief delegate to the Cairo talks, said that "some decisions now have to be taken at the highest levels," and Palestinian planning minister Nabil Shaath said that he expected the leaders to "give the necessary instructions to move ahead on the various issues."
Although there would be further negotiations, beginning in 1996, on final resolution of the Palestinian problem, the Cairo talks would effectively launch the effort to separate Israel from the Palestinian territories, laying the basis -- and perhaps the borders -- for what would likely become a Palestinian state.
"Hard choices lie ahead," an Arafat adviser commented.
"They are difficult in themselves, of course, but their importance will reach far beyond the immediate objective -- elections, troop redeployment, transfer of authority -- because they shape the future."
Mr. Rabin told Mr. Arafat this month in Oslo -- where he, Mr. Shamir and Mr. Peres received the Nobel Peace Prize -- that Israel wants the 5-month-old Palestinian Authority to hold elections as soon as possible, gaining greater standing for the authority among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and taking the 1993 accord on self-government a major step forward.
What Mr. Rabin proposed to Mr. Arafat, according to Israeli sources, was a staged troop withdrawal.
There would also be thinning of forces in other areas and perhaps what was termed a "symbolic withdrawal" from some towns where the administration would be turned over to Palestinians while Israeli forces remained to protect the Jewish settlers and Israeli frontiers.
Through this process Israel would begin to define the areas, both the settlements and various border regions, that it hopes to retain as part of the final agreement.
What Mr. Rabin offered Mr. Arafat in return, according to Israeli sources, was elections for a large council with broad legislative powers, separate election of its chairman, participation of Islamic opposition groups in the election and accelerated transfer of governmental powers to the Palestinian Authority.