The Winds Of Change
Camp David has many Israelis
re-thinking their positions.
LARRY D ERF N ER
Israel Correspondent
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ever before did Israeli and
Palestinian leaders lay their
cards on the table, face up,
for the other to see. Never
before did they agree to finally try to
agree on their three principal disputes
— Jerusalem, borders and refugees.
And never before did such a dra-
matic attempt fail.
Beyond the question of what the
immediate Israeli political reaction to
the Camp David summit will be is
the question of the longer-term effect
on the public debate.
Barak and Yasser Arafat came to
grips with issues that Israeli citizens
have for the most part disposed of
with slogans and certainties. In his
post-summit news conference, Barak
lauded the "legitimate and important"
discussion of these issues that had
begun as a result of the summit.
Yet how will the agonizing exami-
nation of these bottom-line disputes
that took place at Camp David
change Israeli thinking, if at all?
Public Opinion
Recent polls reported contradictory
early findings.
A survey conducted by Dr. Mina
Tsemah and published July 21 in the
Yediot Aharonot daily found that 70
percent of Israelis opposed giving up
any control in Jerusalem, even if the
Palestinians agreed in return to declare
an end to its conflict with Israel. This
squared with the traditional "holy"
consensus on keeping Jerusalem "the
eternal, unified capital of the Jewish
people under Israeli sovereignty"
But Monday's Makriv daily pub-
lished a Gallup Poll that gauged Israeli
opinion of the offer that Barak had
reportedly made to the Palestinians:
near-autonomy in Arab east Jerusalem,
including the Temple Mount; state-
hood in 90-odd percent of the territo-
ries, with the removal of dozens of set-
tlements; and return of a few thousand
refugees to Israel with the remainder
having the right of return to Palestine.
Forty-two percent favored this plan,
with 50 percent opposed. The 42 per-
cent figure was surprisingly high for
such a daring, concessionary proposal.
As the polls offered contradictory
views of the likely effect of Camp
David on popular opinion, leading
ideologues did as well.
Tsali Reshef, leader of Peace Nov
for most of its 23 years on the Israeli
scene, maintained that just as the
Oslo Accord broke the taboo against
negotiating with the PLO, so Camp
David will break another set of
taboos.
"All the sacred cows have been
slaughtered. Until Camp David, shar-
ing sovereignty in Jerusalem - was taboo,
uprooting settlements was nearly
taboo, and considering the right of
return for Palestinian refugees was def-
initely taboo," said Reshef. "After
Camp David, the terms of debate are
going to be completely different."
Shlomo Lahat, a former Tel Aviv
mayor and army general who heads
the dovish Council for Peace and
Security, said that as a result of the
summit, the public's views on core
issues would be "moderated," just as
his own had been in recent months.
"I used to be 100 percent for
Jerusalem — the city had to remain
undivided under Israeli sovereignty.
But now I see that if we have to give
up an Arab neighborhood in east
Jerusalem, or two, or three, as the price
of peace, then its worth it," said Lahat.
Explaining his change of heart,
Lahat said, "I wasn
't aware of the
huge importance the Moslem world
places on Jerusalem. I knew it, but it
never really sank in."
Lahat blamed the failure of the
summit on Arafat's "illogical" negoti-
ating position, and sensed that the
Israeli public's beliefs in the chance for
peace had been damaged.
"A large part of the public has
gone back to thinking that there's
no one to talk to, that the more you
give [the Palestinians], the more
they want," he said.
Meron Benvenisti, a leading dove
and former Jerusalem city councilman,
agreed that the talks at Camp David
had broken the ice for Israelis at large
to take a clear-eyed look at their most
fervent beliefs. However, Benvenisti
said it was up to Barak whether the