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June 30, 2000/27 Sivan 5760, Vol. 52, No.43
House divided during peace process talks
DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
After years of talking about it, anticipating it and preparing for it, a divided and unprepared Israel this week faced what may at last be the decisive phase of the peace process.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright flew into the region June 27 to determine whether the time is ripe for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to attend a Camp David-like summit with President Clinton.
But even before her arrival, key members of Prime Minister Ehud Barak's battered coalition said they would not attend such a meeting even if the premier asked them to join him.
Indeed, Interior Minister Natan Sharansky said Monday that "on the basis of the present, narrow government and on the basis of the present method of negotiating" with the Palestinians, he would pull out of the government the moment Barak decided to go to Washington.
On the other side of the negotiating table, Palestinian officials from Yasser Arafat on down hardened their positions on the eve of Albright's visit.
Though they affirmed that the coming days and weeks are "critical" for the peace process, they accused Israel of inflexibility while they themselves insisted on recovering virtually all of the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
Hours before Albright arrived June 27, Arafat made it clear that he would make no new concessions in the talks aimed at reaching a final peace accord. The preceding day, he repeatedly said there is no point to holding the summit now.
There was even tougher rhetoric from Arafat on June 25, when he warned of a possible new intifada, or Palestinian uprising, and asserted he would soon unilaterally declare an independent Palestinian state.
The heated rhetoric did not subside after Albright met with officials from both sides June 28. Arafat demanded that Israel turn over all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem.
Barak's chief political adviser, Danny Yatom, warned that Israel would "take steps" if diplomatic efforts fail and the Palestinians unilaterally declare a state.
Prospects for holding the summit any time soon dimmed after Albright heard from Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.
After she met with Arafat in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said there would be no summit until after there is progress in lower-level negotiations, which they said would resume next week in Washington.
While there were a few scant signs of cooperation between the two sides, for the most part this was a week of discordance.
Sharansky was foremost among Barak's ministers sounding dissonant notes, but there were others. Sharansky called over the weekend for a national unity government, with the opposition Likud joining the Labor-led coalition.
Yitzhak Levy, the leader of the National Religious Party, another coalition partner, echoed Sharansky's resignation threat. Along with other ministers, some from Barak's own party, Levy complained that Barak and his negotiators were keeping the Cabinet in the dark about the progress of the talks.
Foreign Minister David Levy was among the disgruntled Cabinet members. This week, he upbraided "certain ministers" for adopting negotiating positions that leave Israel, in his view, "denuded of all our assets."
Plainly, the gulf between rhetoric and reality is particularly wide at this time, as the leaders of the two sides strive to keep their final concessions under wraps pending the possible make-or-break summit.
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