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November 5, 1999/26 Cheshvan 5760, Vol. 52, No.10
Oslo summit sets tone for toughest talks yet
DOUGLAS DAVIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Unlike previous efforts at Middle East summitry, this week's Clinton-Barak-Arafat meeting in Oslo did not aim at achieving any dramatic breakthroughs. Instead, the three leaders had the more modest goal of creating a positive atmosphere as Israel and the Palestinian Authority embark on their most difficult negotiations to date - the final-status talks.
Given these goals, President Clinton had little difficulty in hailing his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
"We have just completed a very good meeting. I feel we have revitalized the peace process," Clinton said after the Nov. 2 meeting, which took place amid commemorations in the Norwegian capital of the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
He offered no details about the hour-long meeting, which was intended to lay the groundwork for the final-status talks. Those discussions - which will tackle seemingly intractable issues such as the future of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements, Palestinian refugees and final borders - are slated to begin next week in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Barak and Arafat have agreed to reach a final peace agreement by September of next year. They have also set a Feb. 15 deadline for achieving an outline of that pact.
During the summit, Barak and Arafat agreed to meet regularly in the runup to the February deadline and to have their negotiators meet as often as three times a week. They also vowed to avoid inflammatory speeches during the talks. As part of the U.S. effort, Clinton plans to dispatch Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Middle East envoy Dennis Ross to the region.
Clinton also said this week he would hold another summit with Barak and Arafat to work on the outline, adding that they "agreed with me that we might well have a summit at the end of this process if enough progress has been made" before the February deadline.
Earlier in the day, the three leaders invoked Rabin's memory in a bid to kick-start the final-status talks. Yet, for all three of the principals who assembled along with other leaders in Oslo - where secret Israeli-Palestinian talks led to a historic breakthrough in 1993 - the summit was a high-stakes diplomatic poker game. They knew that if they were unable to create the appropriate mood music in Norway's placid setting, the task of negotiating the tough issues back home in the pressure cooker of Middle East politics would be far more difficult.
No one was underestimating the enormity of the task, the consequences of failure or the benefits that success will bring. For the Israelis, a final settlement with the Palestinians will still leave unfinished business in Syria and Lebanon, but it will remove the major obstacle to normalizing relations with much of the Arab world and help secure the legitimacy that has eluded the Jewish state in the region.
For the Palestinians, a deal would mean not just a homeland but, for the first time, the very real likelihood of an independent Palestinian state.
For Clinton, it is his last best chance to redeem his presidency and associate his name with the achievement of a lasting peace in the Middle East. A hint of Clinton's eagerness to score this achievement could be detected at the Oslo town hall before the summit, when he joined other speakers in paying tribute to Rabin's legacy.
"If Rabin were here with us today he would say, 'There is not a moment to spare. All this honoring me and these nice words, they're very nice - but please finish the job,' " the president told the hundreds who gathered to pay Rabin homage.
Both Barak and Arafat joined in the drama played out before a cast of dignitaries that included Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Rabin's widow, Leah.
"I vow to you, Yitzhak, a soldier who fell in the battle for peace, that we are determined to give your death meaning by following your legacy until we achieve peace," declared Barak.
JTA correspondent Naomi Segal contributed to this report.
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