Israelis and Palestinians gave a cool reception Monday to President Clinton’s scaled-back ambition to leave a road map for the incoming Bush administration on how to proceed with the Mideast peace process.
A day after Clinton delivered what many saw as a valedictory speech on his eight years of mediating in the region, Palestinian negotiators rejected the notion of the lame-duck American leader pushing for a new “declaration of principles” or presidential decree based on compromises he proposed last month. The negotiators accused the proposals of being biased toward the Israelis.
Also Monday, an estimated 100,000 right-wing and religious Israelis sang, danced and marched around Jerusalem’s Old City to put more pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Barak not to make any concessions that would threaten Israel’s control over occupied East Jerusalem or its holy sites.
Barak, far behind opposition leader Ariel Sharon in popularity polls, has been backing away from indications he might accept Clinton’s proposal to give up Israeli sovereignty over the disputed Temple Mount, also known as Haram ash-Sharif, in exchange for equally painful Palestinian concessions.
“We never forgive those who dare to raise their hands against our most precious treasures,” said Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, summing up mood of the Old City rally in a clear warning to Barak.
The pessimistic atmosphere was heightened by a flaring of violence in the Palestinian intifada that included the deaths of at least two Palestinians. In Gaza, Israeli soldiers said they shot a Palestinian who approached them carrying a “suspicious” bag, while in the West Bank town of Hares another Palestinian was shot and killed after stones were thrown at a Jewish settler’s car, Palestinian witnesses said.
For the first time in about a month, Palestinian gunmen resumed firing shots into the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. No one was injured.
More than 360 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed since the outbreak of the uprising against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories began at the end of September.
With only 11 full days left in office, the Clinton administration has not thrown in the towel on getting some kind of understanding between Barak and Arafat to keep the peace process moving. With hopes for a comprehensive treaty all but dead, U.S. officials now are discussing some kind of decree or joint statement summarizing where Clinton will leave off the negotiations.
Dennis Ross, the special U.S. envoy to the Mideast, was scheduled to arrive in the region Tuesday for separate talks with Barak and Arafat. Barak sent the director of Israel’s national security council, Uzi Dayan, to Washington for talks with U.S. officials.
In a video conference Monday with the Council on Foreign Relations, Barak confirmed that the notion of a presidential decree may be the only realistic hope of a final round of negotiating under Clinton. Barak warned that failing to strike some kind of agreement could lead to a further deterioration in the conflict and Israeli steps to impose its own separation plan on the Palestinians.
“Whatever is not achieved in the near future might not be achieved for a long time,” said Barak. If the peace process derails, he said, “We will find ourselves dragged gradually into a Balkan-like situation.”
Barak talked about the steps Israel would have to take if no peace agreement is possible. These would include setting up a wider security zone along the Jordan River, reducing trade between Israel and the Palestinian territories, and gradually, over two years, reducing Israeli dependence on Palestinian workers “to about zero.”
“Ultimately we will have to reach an agreement,” Barak said. “We do not intend to rule over another people for the next 33 years as we have for the last 33 years.”
But he said he “will not sign any agreement that in my judgment threatens the security of Israel.”
In a discussion forum following Barak’s appearance, Peter Rodman, director of national security programs at the Nixon Center, a Washington-based think tank, said the Israeli and Palestinian sides are more concerned about public opinion than progress in the peace talks.
“What is going on now is not really a negotiation, it’s really a classical minuet of onus-shifting,” Rodman said.
The prime minister is in a jam. It had been assumed that he needed some kind of peace treaty with Arafat to salvage his campaign for re-election, and on Monday he blamed Arafat for spoiling the opportunity by not responding quickly enough to Clinton’s proposals.
“Arafat dragged his feet for 10 days, rendering the achievement of a peace agreement almost impossible,” Barak said. “In the absence of an agreement, both sides may face uncertainty, instability and the mutual challenge of avoiding a deterioration in the situation.”
Barak and Arafat said last week that they would accept a Clinton’s “bridging” proposal as a basis for further negotiations, albeit with reservations. But after Clinton’s speech on Sunday, in which the president confirmed the details of his plan for the first time, the Palestinians reacted with a far more negative tone.
The Palestinians said Clinton’s ideas were too closely aligned with Israeli proposals. And they argued that the plan did not adequately respect Arafat’s objections, especially to Clinton’s proposal that the Palestinians concede the claimed right of some 4 million refugees and their descendants to return to the villages they abandoned in 1948.
Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians would not be “pressured” into accepting a Clinton proposal that they feared would alter the basis for negotiations in favor of the Israelis. Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo added that the Palestinians would only agree to a final, comprehensive agreement, because Israel never fulfilled its part of the bargain after signing previous interim agreements.
Sounding just as uncompromising, the Israeli right wing held one of the largest rallies in decades outside the ancient walls of Jerusalem’s Old City to reject the notion of dividing it. Though billed as a non-political event, its message was clearly intended for Barak and Clinton.
“Jerusalem is David’s City, not Arafat’s,” read one banner. “The Temple Mount is ours,” read another.
