This Week

Another Try

Peres Arafat meeting in Berlin is seen as one more last chance.

DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

N

8/24

2001

16

be virtually impossible to enforce.
The Sharon-Peres understanding was not much of
an opening, but Fischer resolved to try to widen it.
Officials on both sides cautioned against heightened
expectations, though they need hardly have bothered.
Previous attempts at diplomacy, including a pur-
ported cease-fire Peres personally worked out with
Arafat last fall, have led nowhere.

ext week in Berlin. That is the new
mantra for the shrinking number of
Israelis who still hold out a slender hope
that Israel and the Palestinians can nego-
tiate a peaceful end to the last 11 months of vio-
lence.
Internal Strife
Foreign Minister Shimon
Increasingly, a ghastly wis-
Peres, Israel's indefatigable
dom seems to be taking
peacemaker, and Yasser
hold both here and abroad
Arafat, the Palestinian
that the Palestinians' recent
Authority leader, are to meet
uprising needs to shed
in Berlin under the aegis of
more blood, cause more
the German government.
pain
and poverty and fur-
Peres has proposed a "grad-
ther
run
its course before a
uated" or phased cease-fire,
diplomatic resolution is
to be implemented region by
possible.
region across the Gaza Strip
Peres has to contend not
and the West Bank, with
only with despairingly low
Israeli troop withdrawals in
expectation of success but
response.
with
hostile criticism from
Arafat has proposed noth-
within
his own party.
ing, but has told the visiting
The
latest
broadside
German foreign minister,
came Monday, when for-
Joschka Fischer, that he is
mer Prime Minister Ehud
ready to listen.
Barak publicly upbraided
The German statesman is
Peres for seeking to engage
one of the few international
Arafat.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer
figures respected by both
Intensive peace talks at
shakes hands with Israeli Foreign Minister
sides. His desperate diplo-
Camp
David last summer
Shimon
Peres
in
Tel
Aviv
on
Aug.
20.
matic efforts in the wake of
and
thereafter
proved that
the disco bombing in Tel
Arafat is no partner for
Aviv on June 1 are credited
peace, Barak contended, and anyone who fails to
with heading off a major Israeli military reprisal
see this must be blind.
then.
Barak recently broke a self-imposed silence since
Fischer was back in the region this week trying to
his
defeat at the polls last winter and has been urg-
fill what some observers feel is a yawning diplomatic
ing
world leaders to shun Arafat as a "thug."
gap left by the Bush administration's reluctance to
Merely talking to Arafat now weakens Israel in its
commit too much of its prestige and credibility to
efforts against him, Barak argued.
the often thankless task of Middle East peacemaking.
Peres hit back, recalling the magnitude of Barak's
European leaders hope to take - advantage of the
electoral defeat to Sharon.
lowered American profile to increase their own role
Yossi Beilin, a leading Labor dove who recently
in Middle East diplomacy.
mounted
his own unsuccessful effort to convene an
Fischer utilized a recent agreement between Peres
international
peace conference in Madrid, said
and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that allows Peres to
Barak's
criticism
was "incomprehensible" given that
launch a new effort to engage the Palestinian
Barak continued to negotiate with the Palestinians
Authority in negotiations — despite Sharon's oft-
on a package of far-reaching Israeli concessions until
stated insistence that Israel will not talk "under fire."
the eve of elections, months after the uprising began.
Peres agreed to Sharon's condition that any talks
Beyond the verbal sparring, the arguments high-
will be solely about a cease-fire and not deal with
light
a basic fault line within the peace camp. It runs
more "political" issues, such as the diplomatic con-
between
those, like Peres and Beilin, who still believe
cessions the Palestinians can expect if they agree to a
in
negotiating
with Arafat, and those like Knesset
cease-fire. Many here note, however, that once Peres
member Haim Ramon and Center Parry leader Dan
and Arafat meet face to face, such a restriction will

Meridor, who believe Israel must act unilaterally t cl
end the violence or at least to better contain it.
In his speech to the kibbutz movement leader-
ship, Barak pointedly noted that he was the fathe
of the "unilateral separation" concept.
Indeed, it was Barak who, as premier, coined t
saying, "We are here and they are there," trying t
persuade the Israeli public that it must forfeit th
dream of "Greater Israel" in favor of the pre-star
principle of partitioning the Land of Israel into
viable Jewish and Arab states.
Barak claims that his intention was to test Arafl
by making him a most generous offer, one that
virtually all Palestinian demands short of allowing
millions of Palestinian refugees and their descen-
dants to return to homes they had abandoned wi
in Israel during the 1948 War of Independence.
If Arafat accepted, well and good. But if he
rejected Israel's condition to declare an end to th
conflict, then Arafat would be "exposed in his tr y
colors," Barak said.
This is precisely what happened, Barak conten
resulting in Arafat's resort to violence beginning
late September.
Increasingly, politicians across a wide spectrurr
are adopting the logic of the Barak thesis, arguin
that no deal can be negotiated in the foreseeable
future and that Israel now must unilaterally re-
deploy its troops and move settlements.
Public opinion is not entirely in favor of unila
alism, however. A sizable segment of the popula
Lion and the political echelon fears that if Israel
withdraws from settlements without an agreeme
it will in effect be offering a "prize" for Palestini,
violence, encouraging their belief that continued
attacks will lead to further Israeli concessions.
In addition, since all but the most extreme ad'
cater of withdrawal recommend that Israel retail'
some important West Bank settlements and key
security areas such as the Jordan Valley, some aq
that a unilateral move will fail to remove a sour
of conflict or swing world opinion to Israel's sid
On the Likud side, a key voice advocating the
unilateral option is Knesset member Michael Ei
Meridor, who this week led his party into the
Sharon government and himself joined the inne
security cabinet, also favors the unilateral appro
He was at Barak's side at Camp David and cam
away profoundly disenchanted with Arafat.
Sharon is fully aware of Meridor's views and d
agrees with the unilateral separation approach,
still was pleased by the Center Party's decision t ,
join the coalition.
"I want him at my side," the premier said of
Meridor.
Even in Peres' circle, the word is that unilater
ism, in one form or another, will have to be serf'
ously contemplated if the foreign minister's best
laid diplomatic plans again run up against
Palestinian recalcitrance.
A unilateral withdrawal is not the preferred
option, a key aide explained this week — but it
could yet be adopted as the only viable alternativ
unending bloodshed. El

For the latest Mideast news, log on to
www.detroitiewishnews,com

