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Change Your Life! |
Crossing fingers didn't do: lets kiss good-bye |
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News
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July 27, 2000
THURMONT, Maryland (AP) - The collapse of the Camp David summit leaves Israel and the Palestinians facing a round of tough new decisions about when - or whether - to return to the bargaining table. For President Bill Clinton, the failure of the make-or-break summit leaves him with the clock running out on his time in office and a disappointingly diminished chance of leaving a Mideast peace legacy. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, meanwhile, faces renewed political infighting at home and a drive by his right-wing opponents to force early elections - a move that could put peacemaking on the back burner for months. And Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was heading into consultations with other Arab leaders, trying to forge a consensus on whether Palestinians should consider accepting some form of control in Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. That is more than Israel has ever offered before, but falls short of Palestinians' long-standing sovereignty demands. After a two-week summit punctuated by moments of high drama, repeated walkout threats by both sides and a premature U.S. declaration last week that the summit was dead, its final ending was both sudden and somber. "They couldn't get there; that's the truth," Clinton said simply, announcing that the two sides could not come to terms. The chief cause of the breakdown, all sides said, was Jerusalem, which both Israel and the Palestinians claim as their capital. "This is agonizing for both of them," the president said of his summit partners, Barak and Arafat. "I think they both remain committed to peace. I think they both will find a way to get there if they don't let time run away from them." Palestinian sources said there might be an attempt by the parties to regroup sometime in August. Barak, though, told reporters that "I cannot know whether there will be another summit before September."
Heading into the Camp David talks, Clinton spoke of the "profound and wrenching" choices that would be necessary to achieve an accord. He could not hide his disappointment when none materialized despite the grueling talks. The summit-goers were not left completely empty-handed, however. The delegations said in a statement they intended "to continue their efforts to conclude an agreement on all permanent status issues as soon as possible." But no timetable was set; Barak said it was important for both his own team and the Palestinians to go home and reflect. The delegations also said they understood the importance of avoiding unilateral actions - seen as an implicit pledge by Arafat not to declare a Palestinian state outside of negotiations with Israel. That helps defuse what had been a potential showdown on Sept. 13, when a deadline set by the two sides for reaching an accord expires. Before the summit, the Palestinians said they would declare statehood then, treaty or no treaty. In a gesture to Arafat, the statement said the only path to peace was resolutions adopted by the U.N. Security Council after Middle East wars in 1967 and 1973. These call for Israel to relinquish territory won from the Arabs in exchange for secure borders. Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top Arafat aide, blamed Barak for the failure, saying he entered the talks with an inflexible list of "no's."
"The Israeli position was the cause of failure," he said. Barak, though, put the blame squarely on Arafat. "It's painful to realize the other side is not ripe for peace," he told reporters before flying back to Israel. Clinton credited both sides with seeking a compromise on the future of Jerusalem, but suggested Barak took bolder steps than Arafat. "The Palestinians changed their position, they moved forward," Clinton said, slightly lifting the secrecy he had imposed on the details of the negotiations. "The Israelis moved more." Abdel Rahim said Arafat would tour Arab countries and urge them to convene a summit of foreign ministers to work on a unified Arab position. On his way home, Arafat was stopping off to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who held a flurry of talks with Arab leaders while the summit was going on to assess their views. Hassan Abdel Rahman, the PLO's representative in Washington, said in an interview with Associated Press Television News that he hoped peace talks would continue because "the alternatives to a peace agreement are very ugly." Clinton said he understood the tremendous domestic pressures that both Barak and Arafat faced. Hard-liners on both sides have made veiled threats of violence if they perceived their leaders had conceded too much. "If you ask me, 'Did they make enough progress to get this done?' Yes," Clinton said. "But they've got to go home and check, they've got to feel around." While not making a firm commitment to new talks, the president - who has less than six months left in office - strongly hinted he hoped they could occur. Barak said he understood the American mediation effort would resume with a senior U.S. official's visit to the region. "I feel that we have the elements here to keep this process going. ... I think it can happen," Clinton said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak faced a tough domestic situation as he flew home Wednesday form the failed Camp David summit. In just a few days parliament was due to vote on a no-confidence motion and a bill to hold early elections. Hawkish parties who quit his coalition as he left for Camp David said they will return only if he establishes a national unity government with the right wing opposition Likud party, while the doves who stood by him say that would kill any chance left for peace. The Israeli prime minister ended two weeks of U.S.-brokered talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat without any agreement. The talks collapsed over terms for sharing Jerusalem, a city claimed by both peoples. Barak's readiness to even discuss Jerusalem and other once-taboo issues led three parties to bolt his coalition on the eve of the talks, leaving him with a minority coalition. His spokesman said that Barak's priority when he arrives - about 18.00 hours Israel time - would be to form a new government. "The prime minister will deal with reforming the government," Gadi Baltiansky told Israel radio. Baltiansky would not address the prospects of a national unity government, but there were intimations that he was already dealing with it. Likud leader Ariel Sharon said Wednesday he would have a meeting with Barak and did not rule out the idea of a national unity government. However he said he preferred an early election. "Now that the summit has failed and the true positions of the sides are known, the right course is to hold elections so that the people can decide. .... Barak cannot say in an election campaign that he against partition of Jerusalem, against the return of the (Palestinian) refugees to Israel, or handing over the Jordan Valley,"Sharon said. Natan Sharansky, who heads an immigrants party which left the government over Camp David, said a national unity government would be the only salve after what he said had been an extremely divisive process for Israelis. "We are happy the prime minister is returning without an agreement," he told a summit post-mortem on Israel television. "Now is the time to establish a national unity government with wide agreement and to avoid a split in the people." Eli Ishai, head of the religious Shas party, which also defected from the coalition over the Camp David negotiations, said he was prepared to talk to Barak about rejoining the government, but would not commit himself. He evaded questions on whether he would vote for or against the no-confidence motion and the bill to dissolve parliament and call elections. In the Likud some called for national unity to face the violence they predicted would sweep the disputed lands now that the summit had failed. "We are about to enter a very difficult period that could lead to violence, or even total conflict with the Palestinians," said Likud legislator Meir Shetreet. However Uzi Landau, an influential Likud hard-liner, said the Likud should join the government only in a state of emergency comparable with the tense period leading up to the 1967 war. "I think the people of Israel need a genuine opposition and that is the role of the Likud," he said. Such talk was anathema to the doves who have been loyal to Barak. They say that inviting hawks into government would kill the prospects for peace. "All this talk of national unity is a smokescreen for those who do not want peace," said Zahava Galon of the Meretz party. "A national unity government is a government of national paralysis." Those worries extended to some in Barak's own One Israel party, who said they would strongly advise Barak against national unity. "Letting the Likud join a Barak government amounts to telling the world, `shalom to shalom,"' said Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, playing on the double meaning of a word that means both `farewell' and `peace.' Haim Ramon, who is minister responsible for Jerusalem, did not rule out Likud participation in the government, but said the hard-line positions expressed by the oppositions made this unlikely. "The voices I am hearing now show ... that the opposition parties want to change the policy, so that we will be unable to make even the slightest move forward in the peace process," he said. On his way home from failed talks with the Israelis in Camp David, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat stopped in this Mediterranean city Wednesday to brief President Hosni Mubarak on why the negotiations collapsed. Arafat was met by cheering crowds who had gathered along the route to the Ras el-Tin Palace, where the talks were to be held. Arafat's visit to Egypt is part of an Arab tour the Palestinian leader is expected to make to try to forge a consensus on whether Palestinians should consider accepting some form of control in Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. That is more than Israel has ever offered before, but falls short of Palestinians' long-standing sovereignty demands. Arab leaders have made it clear they consider the status of Jerusalem a pan-Arab issue, and Arafat must answer to them as well as to his own people. The U.S.-brokered talks at Camp David collapsed over Jerusalem, which both Israel and the Palestinians claim as their capital. During the summit, Mubarak held a flurry of talks with Arab leaders to assess their views. Egypt, the first Arab country to make peace with Israel in 1979, has said the eastern part of Jerusalem should be the capital of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians have said they would declare statehood on Sept. 13, when a deadline set by the Israelis and Palestinians for reaching an accord expires. On the Net: State Department summit page: http://www.state.gov/www/regions/nea/cdavid-summit.html |
