Ehud Barak won a triumphal reception
in Washington by making peace his message.
Man On A Mission
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
Washington
A
self-confident Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak dazzled
administration Mideast poli-
c-ymakers during his inau-
gural official visit to Washington this
week. And he brought a distinct mes-
sage to American Jewish groups, reshuf-
fling the deck so that pro-peace ones
were elevated to the top rung — in his
eyes — of the ladder of importance.
Without a single word of public
criticism, Barak served notice on
mainstream American Jewish groups
that he believes that many of them
have been too quick to use American
politics to interfere with Israeli policy.
The results of the prime minister's
six-day visit included a host of new
strategic cooperation agreements
between Washington and Jerusalem, a
new understanding of the diminished
U.S. role in the soon-to-be-revived
negotiations and a decision by Barak
and President Bill Clinton to meet
regularly to build on this week's
momentum. The latter is a striking
contrast to the freeze that kept
Barak's predecessor, Binyamin
Netanyahu, out of the White House.
And Barak's message to American
Jewish leaders was clear.
"In part, what he was saying to us is
that we shouldn't be holier than the
pope on security," said Seymour Reich,
a former chair of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations. "He made it clear that
negotiations will be tough, and we
shouldn't do anything to upset them."
At one point, in response to a ques-
tion by a Jewish leader about a pro-
posed settlement in Har Homa in East
Jerusalem, Barak said that he has to
negotiate with the Palestinians, not
the Presidents Conference. And he
warned Jewish leaders not to "frighten
7/23
1999
22 Detroit Jewish News
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Bill Clinton at a press conference in Washington Monday.
me" with stories about who is more
devoted to Jerusalem.
Administration officials were
impressed and surprised by Barak's
wide-ranging peace plans, which he
laid out in detail for officials here, and
by his determination to conclude a
series of agreements in 15 months on
what he termed "two and a half
Syria and Syrian-controlled
fronts"
Lebanon, and the Palestinians.
A Sunday night White House din-
ner for Barak and 400 guests was a
virtual love fest, although shadowed
—
by the disappearance of John F.
Kennedy Jr., his wife and sister-in-law
in an airplane off Martha's Vineyard.
The dinner featured a rwo-and-a-
half hour receiving line and a guest list
top-heavy with prominent New York
Jews, a political nod to First Lady
Hillary Clinton, who is vying to be a
U.S. senator from New York.
By almost any measure, Barak's
visit was a public relations and
diplomatic triumph.
"Even before he came, the trip was
destined to be a success," said Joel
Singer, an Israeli lawyer now working
in Washington and one of the archi-
tects of the original Oslo agreement.
"The administration gave him the red
carpet treatment, and the decision was
made in Israel for the prime minister
to bend over backward and not bring
any surprises or poke the administra-
tion in the eye, as Netanyahu did."
The visit dramatically changed
the atmospherics of U.S.-Israel rela-
tions, Singer added, which is a criti-
cal element in ending the current
impasse in peace talks.