Summit At Camp David

JAMES D. BESSER
Wzshinoon Correspondent

Washington

t was the non-surprise of the week: after eight days of tough
negotiations on a host of final-status issues, it was the deal-
breaker issue of Jerusalem that set the Israeli-Palestinian
summit at Camp David spinning into crisis on Wednesday.
With Israeli officials saying the Palestinians had shown no flexi-
bility on the Jerusalem question, Prime Minister Ehud Barak threat-
ened to leave the presidential retreat on Wednesday.
"The Palestinians are not yet ready to accept hard decisions that
are required," according to a statement from the prime minister's
office in Jerusalem. "Israel did not and will never accept an unrea-
sonable demand from the other side."
At press time, it was unclear if Barak was using the threat to leave
on Wednesday evening to blast through the Jerusalem impasse — or
ifd a genuine end to the troubled talks.
Because of the crisis that threatened to derail the difficult talks,
President Bill Clinton put off his scheduled trip to a G-8 economic
summit in Okinawa, giving negotiators one more chance to cut through
the conflicting red lines entangling negotiations over Israel's capital.
During this week's talks, Israel reportedly agreed to allow
Palestinian autonomy in some east Jerusalem neighborhoods and to
expand the city to incorporate both Palestinian suburbs such as Abu
Dis and Jewish settlements such as Maaleh Adumim.
But Arafat, under mounting domestic political pressure, contin-
ued to demand full sovereignty for east Jerusalem, which he insisted
would be the capital of the Palestinian state that he plans to pro-
claim in September, with or without an agreement.
There were also reports negotiators had agreed on Israeli support
for a demilitarized Palestinian state and a formulation in which
Israel would express regret for the plight of Palestinian refugees, but
not assume legal responsibility.
Other reports suggested that Barak has agreed to accept up to
100,000 Palestinian refugees in a onetime goodwill gesture.
But as many Mideast experts had predicted, it was the issue of
Jerusalem that threatened Clinton's plan to wrap up a deal before
his departure for the Far East on Wednesday.
U.S. negotiators shuttled back and forth between delegations, and
President Clinton met with Arafat and Barak individually; by
Wednesday, the two leaders had met with each other only twice
during the summit, which began on July 11. That, seasoned Mideast
observers said, was not unexpected; the two leaders were expected to
keep their direct negotiations at a minimum until a deal was about
to be completed,. 111

The

Hardest

Jerusalem is the cork in the

President Clinton meets with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David,
Md. on July 18. Gemal Held, State Department senior adviser, left, and
Palestinian negotiator Nabil Aburudineh look on.

