The Stri fe

DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

fter years of
talking about it,
anticipating it
and preparing
for it, a divided and unpre-
pared 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 Tuesday to
A Palestinian flag is waved in eastern Jerusalem.
determine whether the
time is ripe for Israeli and
he would pull out of the government the
Palestinian leaders to attend a Camp David-like
moment Barak decided to go to Washington.
summit with President Bill Clinton.
On the other side of the negotiating table,
But even before her arrival, key members of
Palestinian
officials from Yasser Arafat on
Ehud Barak's battered coalition said they would
down
hardened
their positions on the eve of
not attend such a meeting even if the premier
Albright's visit.
asked them to join him.
While they affirmed that the coming days
Indeed, Interior Minister Natan Sharansky
and weeks are "critical" for the peace process,
said Monday that "on the basis of the present,
they accused Israel of inflexibility while they
narrow government and on the basis of the pre-
sent method of negotiating" with the Palestinians,
STRIFE on page 26

Jerusalem/JTA

T

Capt ion: Brian Hendler/JTA

Israel enters
decisive
moment in
history with a
house divided.

Key Points

hegulf between rhetoric and reality
in the Mideastpeace negotiation is
particularly wide at this time, as the lead-
ers of the two sides strive to keep their
final concessions under wraps, pending a
possible make-or-break summit.
For public consumption, Arafat
speaks of the Palestinians' inalienable
right of return to homes they left during
the 1948 War of Independence and the
incontrovertible status of eastern
Jerusalem as the Palestinians' capital.
For public consumption, too, Barak's
office repeatedly downplays the validity
of reports purporting to detail the pre-
sent state of the negotiations, and of the
shape of the evolving permanent status
agreement.
According to these reports:
• Barak is offering more than 90 per-
cent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
to the Palestinians;
• He is proposing that Israel annex
large Jewish settlement blocs, which
would incorporate some 150,000 Jewish
settlers in more than 100 settlements,
while ceding 50 far-flung settlements
whose 50,000 to 60,000 inhabitants
would have to choose between return-
ing to Israel or living under Palestinian
rule;
• He is prepared to cede sovereignty
over the Jordan Valley to the
Palestinians, but with provisions for a
small army presence at key points, to be
beefed up instantly if any threat should
arise from across the Jordan River;
• He is prepared to consider formula-
tions recognizing in prin'ciple the
Palestinian right of return, but severely
limiting it in practice;
• The Palestinian state, which Israel
would recognize, would be effectively a
demilitarized state under the terms of
the peace treaty;
• Barak is prepared to see a
Palestinian flag flying over the Temple
Mount and to recognize a Palestinian
capital in "Al-Quds," the Arabic name
for Jerusalem. Al-Quds would include
such suburbs as Azariya and Abu Dis;
• The Palestinians would recognize
western Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The parts of eastern Jerusalem annexed by
Israel in 1967 would remain in dispute
for the time being, the subject of further
negotiations. This would not prevent the
two sides, together with President Bill
Clinton, from proclaiming the end of the
century-long conflict between the Jews
and the Palestinian Arabs.

6/30

2000

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