Peace

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Arafat tries to rally
the Arab nations,
but in the end,
it's his decision alone.

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GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

P

alestinian Autliority Chairman Yasser
Arafat has spent the past several days con-
ferring with Arab leaders about the
stances he will adopt following the failed
Camp David summit.
As he traveled to nations including Saudi Arabia,
Morocco, Algeria, Jordan and Tunisia, Arafat needed
to get his signals straight on what can and cannot be
negotiated away in the search for a comprehensive
peace with Israel.
After what he considered a two-week diplomatic
siege at Camp David, Arafat needed a timeout to
rally support.
According to all accounts, the summit failed over
the issue of Jerusalem. And when it comes to the
Holy City, Arafat knows full well that he is negotiat-
ing not only on behalf of the Palestinians, but that
he also has to take into account the sensibilities of
the broader Arab and Muslim world.
According to many observers, Arafat cannot move
toward a compromise with Israel on Jerusalem — or
on the issue of Palestinian refugees — without the
blessing of Arab and Muslim leaders.

What He Might Get

Some Israeli analysts believe that despite Arafat's
overtures, there is not much he can expect from the
Arab world.
Barry Rubin, the deputy director of the Begin-
Sadat Research Center at Bar-Ilan University, said
Arafat is seeking two apparently conflicting things

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during his Arab tour.
He wants his Arab brethren to endorse his
tough demands from the Israelis. At the same
time, however, he does not want them to attack
him if and when he does make concessions.
Arafat's problem, according to Rubin, is that
most of the Arab countries have thrown the prob-
lems back to Arafat to deal with on his own.
"Much to Arafat's dismay, the Arab world to a
large extent is standing aside and saying, 'You
cope with it alone,"' said Rubin.
Moreover, he added, Arafat has found himself
in a damned-if-you-do and a damned-if-you-
don't situation.
On one hand, Arafat was criticized by a Saudi-
owned paper for not reaching an agreement at
Camp David. At the same time, some Islamic
voices in Kuwait warned him against making any
concessions.
Rubin said an Arab summit on the issues fac-
ing Arafat is unlikely. The Arab states do not have
a unified stance on these issues, he said, and a
summit would only expose their differences.
If Arafat does make concessions, he may face
difficulties with hard-line nations like Iran, Iraq,
Libya, Sudan and Syria.
"But even so," added Rubin, "what can they
actually do?" At the end of the day, he said, Arafat
will have to make the difficult decisions by himself

A Firm Date

During his travels this week, Arafat also had a second
item on his agenda — to portray himself as having
emerged from the summit with his credentials intact
as a staunch defender of Palestinian rights.
With this in mind, he told interviewers for
Saudi newspapers Tuesday that he has every inten-
tion of declaring Palestinian statehood by Sept.
13, the self-imposed deadline that Israel and the
Palestinian Authority earlier agreed on for reach-
ing a final peace accord.
Asked if he would defer the declaration, Arafat
said, "Never, never. There is no retreat." Days
before, when he began his tour in France, Arafat
appeared to leave open the possibility that he
would delay the declaration.
But by the time he reached Saudi territory, the
answer had-changed: "It will be declared at the

a

Jewish children discuss the boundaries of krusalem in
front of a map o east Jerusalem at the Jewish Quarter
in Jerusalem's o walled city on July 26

Tangled Jerusalem

The crucial issue at Camp David was the future con-
trol of east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak reportedly offered to
give the PLO limited sovereignty over parts of the
city that are predominandy Arab already. An
American "bridging' proposal suggested that Israel
would annex some suburban areas to pave the way
for an Arab "capital" in what it calls al-Quds. The
accompanying map shows the intermixture of Israeli
and Palestinian areas in the city today.

1111 Arab areas

Jewish areas

Principal Jewish
suburbs built or
under construction

ISRAEL

Neve Yaakov

