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Check out the Plumber
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derfeand Service/6

Uri Savir's "The Process" is a fascinating
behind-the-scenes story of the peace that might have been.

SANDEE BRAWARSKY
Special to The Jewish News

We're open for Lunch.
Please call about our hours.

•;

On The Bookshelf

.

IV hile some dreamed or
prayed or sang of peace,
Uri Savir rolled up his
sleeves and tried to cre-
ate it. As Israel's chief negotiator in the
Oslo peace process beginning in 1993,
he worked secretly with a core
group of Israelis and
Palestinians.
In their marathon sessions
in isolated Norwegian hide-
aways, members of the Oslo
Club, as they came to call
themselves, moved from hos-
tility to understanding, trust
and even friendship, as they
hoped their two nations
would.
While their work resulted
in the formulation and sign-
ing of the Oslo accords on the
White House lawn in
September 1995, Savir is
quick to credit the visionary
leadership of Rabin, Peres and
Arafat for taking the requisite
risks that led to the agree-
ment.
In The Process: 1,100 Days

That Changed the Middle East

(Random House; $27.95),
Savir reveals the drama and
details behind-the-scenes in
three years of negotiations
with the Palestinians — and
also with the Syrians — from
Oslo to Turin, Taba, Tel Aviv,
Cairo and Tunis, from issues
of security to deployment to
resources.
Many of the particulars are report-
ed here for the first time. The well-
written account ends with Peres' defeat
in the 1996 elections, when Savir
resigned from his position as director-
general of the Foreign Ministry. Savir
now heads the Peres Center for Peace
in Tel Aviv.
The author was a much-admired
presence in New York City from

Sandee Brawarshy is a New York-

based fi-eelance writer.

life."
The son of one of the founders of
Israel's Foreign Service, Savir sees the
Clinton administration as the most
pro-Israel that he can remember.
"There's a limit for us to be thankless.
We're strongly aided by the U.S. They
have helped us a lot on the peace
process and show enormous empathy
for us.
"I agree with 85 percent ofc_\
the Israeli people who believe
that Clinton and his adminis-
tration are good friends of
Israel. It's a mistake for us not
to come to agreement with
the administration. It's the
first situation ever where the
PLO is closer to the U.S.
position than Israel."
Savir offers his take on the
art of negotiating: "To be a
tough negotiator is not about
making tough public state-
ments — it's being able to
I ,too. Days That Changed the Middle East
resist premature compromises
and not to compromise over
what is essential."
Real strength, he says, "is
the ability to compromise."
Each party must have a clear
and concrete understanding of
its own self-interests as well as
the other's self-interests, and
must also see the benefits of
creating a "mutual self-inter-
est." And even though the
issues are emotional, the
process "must be relatively
unemotional."
Israel's chief negotiator of the peace. process
Some of Savir's negotiating
skills were honed during his
term as counsel general. "New
York is a place where you negotiate
recent comments about Palestinian
yourself through life," he says.
statehood, he says he can't react in
About Netanyahu, he says he's "not
terms of its meaning for the adminis-
sure" he understands the prime minis-
tration, but as to the substance, he
ter, who "honestly believes he is a bet-
empathizes.
ter
and tougher negotiator." But for
"We have to understand that there
Savir,
the measure of success in negoti-
will be a Palestinian state. We might
ations is based on "what you want to
like it, we might not; it's fully in
gain. The important thing is the quali-
Israel's interests. If there's not a
ty of relations, not inches of land."
Palestinian state, we will be Bosnia. In
In his accounts of the Oslo negoti-
a strange way we need a Palestinian
ating sessions in The Process, humor
state to keep Jewish. Most Israelis
seems to be a key element, and Savir
know this will happen. It's a fact of

1988-1992, during his term as Israel's
consul general. Back in the United
States for a book tour, he arrives when
news of the peace process he worked
so hard to shape is again on page one.
But now it's mired in obstacles, and
the Oslo Club is no longer empow-
ered to clear the way.
When asked about Hillary Clinton's

•_/

.

.„.,

THE PROCESS

URI SAVIR