1 The leaders of Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians met in Cairo on Thursday for an unprecedented summit to revive the faltering peace process or face a further descent into bloodshed.
2 The summit was a dramatic show of unity between Israel and its three Arab peace partners. But disillusionment with the Israel-PLO agreement runs deep, and their ability to stem murderous attacks by Islamic militants is uncertain at best.
3 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, the key players, will find it difficult to make the necessary concessions since their positions are already precariously weak.
4 The meeting got under way after sundown at the Ittahadiya presidential palace with a meal to break the daylong fast Muslims observe during the holy month of Ramadan. Prime Minister Atef Sedki of Egypt sounded a positive note as he entered the palace.
5 'I am optimistic,' he said. 'I think there will be a good result from this meeting.'
6 Israeli officials said they hoped the meeting would produce a strong condemnation of terrorism, and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he expected the other foreign ministers and PLO leaders to meet next week in Washington to push forward the peace talks.
7 The group also was expected to agree on a statement pledging them to greater economic cooperation, sources close to the talks said on condition of anonymity.
8 The three visiting leaders met with President Hosni Mubarak separately before the summit, but no one commented on the meetings.
9 Earlier Thursday in Jerusalem, Rabin made it clear that an end to attacks on Israelis was the key to expanding autonomy in the West Bank and holding Palestinian elections, both elements of the Israeli-PLO accord signed in September 1993.
10 Arafat's government must 'make sure that the territory they rule -- Gaza and Jericho -- is not used as shelter, or a place to prepare, incite and execute attacks,' Rabin told members of his Labor Party before he left for Cairo.
11 'Their ability to meet it will decide more than anything both the speed and possibility of progress in implementing the solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,' he said.
12 The Palestinians will push Israel to end the closure of Palestinian territories that it imposed after a Jan. 22 suicide bombing killed 21 Israelis, said Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Irdeineh. He also added a long list of demands left unresolved since the agreement was signed.
13 'The success of the summit depends on the lifting of closure, redeployment of the Israeli army from populated areas, the release of prisoners, and halting of the expansion of settlements,' he said.
14 The 1993 pact requires the Israeli army to pull back from Palestinian towns in the West Bank to make way for elections, and for the release of Palestinian prisoners. None of this has happened amid the persistent violence.
15 The Palestinians also thought the pact would freeze the expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied land. But Israel is adding thousands of homes to the Jewish enclaves.
16 Israeli officials, meanwhile, said they would consider easing the closure to enable Ramadan observance.
17 'It can be assumed that starting next week the closure will be eased because of Ramadan. We are not interested in punishing the Palestinian population,' Police Minister Moshe Shahal said on Israel television Thursday.
18 All four leaders stand to gain from the summit.
19 Jordan's King Hussein has been criticized at home for rushing into a treaty with Israel before Syria settled its quarrel. The summit could reflect Hussein's growing role as a regional broker.
20 Mubarak, meanwhile, bolsters his image as a peacemaker, currying favor with his American patrons. He's also confronted by an Islamic insurgency and has much to lose by a surge of Muslim extremism in Gaza, which lies on Egypt's Sinai border.
21 For Arafat and Rabin, their political lives depend on the agreement's success. Both have seen their popularity plummet as the expected fruits of the pact failed to materialize: jobs and independence for the Palestinians, security for the Israelis.
22 At another level, the summit marks an acceptance of Israel by Arab countries unimaginable just a few years ago. Israel has typically shied away from multilateral meetings, preferring to negotiate with Arab countries one at a time.
23 Missing at the summit was Syrian President Hafez Assad, who refuses to meet with Israeli leaders before he has a commitment for the return of land captured by Israel in 1967.

The summit was a dramatic show of unity between Israel and its three Arab peace partners . But disillusionment with the Israel - PLO agreement runs deep , and their ability to stem murderous attacks by Islamic militants is uncertain at best .
is uncertain at best .
Why are the countries unable to stop the attacks?