This Week
/ 1
During his travels to 20 countries to sell Palestinian statehood, Kuser Arafat met with, from left, Chinese President Jiang Zemin; Iranian President Mohammad Khatami;
and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
Keep On Truckin'
World tells Arafat to talk to Israel again.
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency .
Jerusalem
alestinian Authority President
Yasser Arafat's globetrotting
has not paid off.
Following the collapse of
the Camp David summit, Arafat trav-
eled to some 20 countries to drum up
support for his making a unilateral dec-
laration of a Palestinian state.
._
But the message he got from
Europe's capitals, and from Moscow
and Beijing as well, was essentially the
same: Go back to the negotiating table
with Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Nor was the message any different in
most of the Arab states Arafat visited in
hopes of shoring up support. Palestinian
statehood, he was told, should emerge
as a result of an agreement with Israel.
No wonder, then, that there has
been growing talk this week of another
Barak-Arafat summit.
Barak's security adviser, Danny
Yatom, spoke Monday about the pos-
sibility of another U.S.-sponsored
. summit. He said President Bill
Clinton would likely "decide on the
fate of another summit" after U.S.
Middle East envoy Dennis Ross visits
the region in the coming days.
Israel's acting foreign minister,
Shlomo Ben-Ami, also discussed the
possibility of a summit, saying
-.•,.,
,
VDT Monday that it could be held some-
ED
8/18
2000
30
Keeping Up With Arafat
met with in recent days, the one with
perhaps the most impact on his think-
ing is Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak.
Arafat needs Mubarak's backing for
whatever steps he is about to take, and
Mubarak gave a strong indication
Sunday that the Palestinian leader
would postpone a unilateral declara-
tion of statehood.
Not to be outdone by Arafat's criss-
crossing of the globe, Barak recently
dispatched several ministers and advis-
ers to present Israel's case to the world.
In addition to Ben-Ami, ministers
Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin and Amnon
Lipkin-Shahak reminded world leaders
of the concessions Barak had been will-
ing to make at Camp David. They also
portrayed Arafat — as Clinton had done
in the summit's immediate aftermath —
as the one who had been unwilling to go
the necessary extra mile for peace.
For his part, Yatom went on a mis-
sion to the Persian Gulf, where he met
with the foreign ministers of Bahrain
and Oman.
Clinton, meanwhile, is reportedly
willing to host another summit, but
only if the two sides are ready to settle
all the outstanding issues — particu-
larly the fate of Jerusalem, which by all
accounts was what led to the failure of
the previous summit.
As Ben-Ami said this week, "This
time we cannot risk another failure."
Of all the world leaders Arafat has
Mubarak also ruled out the possibility
of any Palestinian concessions regard-
ing the status of Jerusalem, saying the
city is "Arab land and no one can
retreat on this issue." Just-the same,
there are those who believe that
Mubarak may be more flexible.
Israel Television's Arab affairs ana-
lyst, Ehud Ya'ari, reported this week
that Mubarak is working out a bridg-
ing proposal for the Jerusalem issue.
According to Yiari, Mubarak has
suggested that Israel and the
Palestinians should reach an agreement
that would leave open the question of
sovereignty in Jerusalem.
American pressure has apparently
made Mubarak more amenable to mak-
ing concessions where Jerusalem is con-
cerned. Following the failure of the
Camp David summit, Clinton did not
hide his disappointment with Mubarak's
failure to contribute to the talks' success.
For its part, the Egyptian press was
time in September, depending on how
the two sides work before then.
Ben-Ami made the comment while
visiting Italy, his latest stop on a tour
of European nations to present the
Israeli side following the collapse of
the Camp David summit.
Wiggle Room
up in arms after New York Times
columnist Thomas Friedman wrote a
recent column in the form of an open
— and very angry — letter from
Clinton to Mubarak. The fictitious
letter questioned Mubarak's friendship
with the United States and blamed
Egypt for not appreciating the billions
in American aid it gets.
The Egyptian press went ballistic.
The United States, with its 200 years
of history, cannot lecture Egypt, with
its 5,000 years of history, wrote one
Egyptian columnist.
Follow The Money
But last week, when spirits cooled, the
Egyptians realized that yes, Clinton can
indeed lecture, given those billions in aid.
"Egypt is a country with two hearts
that beat simultaneously," said Ya'ari.
One heart belongs to Gamal Abdel
Nasser, the nationalist president of the
1950s and 1960s, and the other to
Anwar Sadat, the pragmatic Western-
oriented peacemaker, he said.
"Recently the Americans heard
Nasser's heart beating stronger, but
after a little pressure, Sadat's heart is
taking over," Ya'ari said.
Assuming there is another summit,
Israeli officials are already making it
clear that Arafat will have to settle for
whatever he was offered at Camp
David. "Barak has gone as far as he
can go," Yatom said this week. ❑