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Clinton worried about violence if summit fails |
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July 11, 2000
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bill Clinton says the Middle East "can move forward toward peace, or can slide back into turmoil" depending on the outcome of this week's Israeli-Palestinian summit at Camp David. "If the parties do not seize this moment to make more progress, there will be more hostility and more bitterness - perhaps even more violence," the president writes in Newsweek magazine. "While there clearly is no guarantee of success, not to try would guarantee failure." He also sought to explain to Americans the importance of the talks, set to begin Tuesday at the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin mountains. "America has a profound interest in a Middle East whose people are prosperous at peace and willing to confront common challenges as partners. For the same reasons, the rest of the world - and especially the rest of the region - cannot afford to be bystanders," he wrote in the latest edition, appearing on newsstands Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat must seize the movement to resolve the most complex and sensitive issues that have eluded negotiators, Clinton said. "Delay is no longer an option: the parties themselves have set a September deadline for resolving the final issues dividing them. Moreover, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict knows no status quo. It can move forward toward peace, or can slide back into turmoil. It will not stand still," Clinton wrote.
The
stakes are high on all sides, Clinton wrote, as he began to apply
subtle pressure on the two leaders to compromise. Barak needs a peace that
can fulfill his citizens' quest for security and recognition and a real reconciliation with the Palestinians, Clinton said. Arafat needs a settlement that fulfills his people's aspirations to determine their own future on their own land.
The toughest issue appears to be Jerusalem's future, with Arafat seeking to wrest control of East Jerusalem from Israel and make it the capital of a Palestinian state. Negotiators have made some real progress on the "final status issues," Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, said Sunday on CBS television's "Face the Nation." But the leaders need to hold a summit because "they've taken things as far as they can.
They've hit a wall and only now the leaders can make the tough decisions." On ABC's "This Week," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright declined to say whether the dispute had to be settled for an accord to emerge from the summit. "We have a responsibility to move forward here," she said. Ephraim Sneh, Israel's deputy defense minister, said the summit was the last chance for peace. "A collapse of this summit may lead to ... despair in both sides, and despair leads to violence, and violence leads to terrible crisis that would put an end to the dialogue," he told CNN. "The alternative is so horrible that failure of Camp David is inconceivable." Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, said neither side would benefit from more violence. "We don't plan violence. We don't want violence. We don't need violence," he said. Some analysts have suggested that if Clinton cannot get a total agreement, the outcome could be a partial accord - in preference to a breakdown. There is talk already within the Palestinian and Israeli camps of a second summit, in August. Meanwhile, Barak's political troubles worsened as his biggest coalition partner, the Shas party, said Sunday it planned to bolt the government and Foreign Minister David Levy, a moderate, said he was not going to the summit with the prime minister.
The pullout came hours after Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident, withdrew his Russian immigrant party over prospective concessions to the Palestinians, including a toehold in Jerusalem. The National Religious Party is leaving as well. "The prime minister is the best judge of his politics, but we think he's committed to pursue an agreement that provides for Israel's security and that if he's successful, the Israeli people will support him," White House spokesman P.J. Crowley said Sunday. "I think he's faced the same kinds of situations previously." Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were beginning two days of presummit talks Sunday in Washington, with Albright and Ross assisting. Arafat was due to arrive late Monday at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington and go directly to Camp David. Barak was expected to make a quick visit to Alexandria, Egypt, to confer with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, before returning to Israel, where opponents scheduled three no-confidence votes in the parliament. He was to arrive at Andrews early Tuesday.
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