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| EMERGENCY SUMMIT | |
 October 16, 2000  |
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After a background report, two experts discuss today's meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheik.
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GABY RADO: As they talked of truces in Egypt, the Arabs and Israelis in the West Bank town of Hebron had other ideas. We went to the Palestinian town of Ramallah and discovered the anatomy of a day of violence. Overlooking the town, preparations were made in the Israeli encampment, the very presence of which is seen as a provocation by local people. They were holding the funeral procession of a man who died yesterday of wounds received four days ago. But it clearly wasn't just the walk to the cemetery. The weapons on show were a clear message to Israel and to the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that whatever he agreed to in Egypt, the fight would go on.
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| A theatrical quality | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Why was a summit agreed to? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Two weeks ago you both were here talking about the eruption of violence, and in that time, both Prime Minister Barak and Chairman Arafat refused to come to a summit. Now they're there. Why? KHALIL JAHSHAN: Because they had to. The situation has deteriorated to the point where it has become a cause for regional instability. It has raised the concern of the international community. And a lot of pressure, internal, regional, and external to the region has been placed on both leaders to come together. DAVID MAKOVSKY: I agree with Khalil. Basically the violence could spin out of control. It has implications far beyond the Israeli-Palestinian arena, but for the whole region. MARGARET WARNER: So what does Arafat want and need out of this summit?
MARGARET WARNER: So you're talking about, for instance, encampments, such as we just saw in that tape? |
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| Israeli troops in Palestinian centers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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KHALIL JAHSHAN: I have seen basically the presence of these troops -- in other words, the return of Israeli troops in a visible way to Palestinian centers of population. And third, I think the lifting of the closure, the Palestinian territory since the beginning of the violence two and a half weeks ago have been closed. In other words, the 120,000 Palestinians who work in Israel can't go to work and so on. Fourth, a commission of inquiry. The Palestinian side has demanded that there has to be a credible international inquiry into what has happened, the reasons for the explosive situation; and fifth, a general demand that Israel, the government of Mr. Barak, should basically honor its earlier commitments to the Palestinians and return to the table and begin to implement those unfulfilled promises to the Palestinians. MARGARET WARNER: All right. And what do the Israelis need out of this?
MARGARET WARNER: Is that the only demand? DAVID MAKOVSKY: No, no. There's also the idea of the Hamas people. There are differing reports, if it's 25 or 40 Hamas people that were let out of jail. But clearly these are not Hamas Islamic militants, or politicos, but people who -- suicide bombers who'd planned for attacks and now on the loose. Israel wants those people put back. And finally.... MARGARET WARNER: The Palestinian police had -- are in the position to arrest them is the belief? DAVID MAKOVSKY: There are 40,000 Palestinian police, 13 security services. Israel says they're in a position to do that. And, finally, they're willing to agree to an inquiry to what happened, but they want to focus more on the future than the past. And the past experience with international inquiries at the U.N. is they've been heavily politicized. So they want to focus American-led effort. They don't mind adding a couple countries, but in the case of the U.N., they had a case where they had a resolution which condemned Israel and then said, now let's find out what happened. That sounds to Israel Orwellian. MARGARET WARNER: So what problems does Arafat have with what Israel wants? KHALIL JAHSHAN: Arafat has a lot of problems in the sense that he has been weakened by the excessive use of violence by the Israelis. Remember, he entered this conflict with already a weakened popularity. As we said, the last time on this program, his popularity stood then at about 31 percent. And now his headquarters have been bombed, a security location next to his house. It showed the Palestinian people that he's impotent. So he needs to go back with some sense of re-established, if you will, credibility. He needs to go back with a commission of inquiry established, a credible one, not one that is a fake inquiry, if you, will and the president, I think, was sensitive to say today that it needs to be a credible international inquiry. And he needs basically a visible pullout by the Israelis away from the population centers. He feels that if the soldiers are not visible to the demonstrators, there wouldn't be demonstrators and it would be then manageable for him basically to hold people back. MARGARET WARNER: All right. What are Barak's problems with that? |
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| Take leadership role | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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MARGARET WARNER: But isn't Barak also under political pressure similar to the ones… DAVID MAKOVSKY: I think there's political pressure in both cases -- I mean, just to put polling numbers. After Camp David, Arafat's numbers when he seemed defiant of Camp David went up to 64 percent. In this Friday's poll, Ehud Barak was down at 30 percent, his lowest number. I would argue that he could be out of office by the end of this month. MARGARET WARNER: So that raises the question whether either of these men came to Egypt, either ready to give a little, or in a position -- able to give a little. KHALIL JAHSHAN: I think they both came ready to receive. I'm not sure they came ready to give. There is a compromise fatigue, particularly on the Palestinian side, especially when it's not recognized internationally. I mean, the Palestinians at Camp David felt that they went home without the shirt on their back. And they felt that this is the end, this is the limit. And therefore, you know, Arafat would find it very difficult to accept even though it was described as a magnanimous offer by Barak and certainly, I mean, I have no question that Barak is more giving than any other prime minister before him in Israel, but what he offered is not enough to meet the minimum demands on the Palestinian side. It was the equivalent of Saddam basically in '91 telling Kuwait, I'm willing to give you back 92 percent of Kuwait, but I'm keeping the oil. MARGARET WARNER: You're talking about the offers made at Camp David. But, for instance, I guess it's hard maybe for Americans to understand. If someone sat between the two of them and said, okay, we'll put these items down, and these items down -- can't you both agree to do it all at the same time -- why that couldn't happen. KHALIL JAHSHAN: It could happen. I think it could happen. We might be surprised, particularly with regards to basically cessation of violence. But it has to take some serious decisions on the part of the Israelis to pull their troops back. I think most of the Palestinian violence, justified or not justified, is a result of the provocations in terms of military presence facing them day in, day out. MARGARET WARNER: All right. And what problems does Barak have on just that one point, pulling back the Israeli troops? |
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| Solving issues across the table | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DAVID MAKOVSKY: I think if he heard Yasser Arafat go on
TV and radio and say, I'm urging you, my Palestinian brethren, stay home.
This peace process is about solving issues across the table, not on the
street. Israeli troops would be out of there. I mean, that's the whole
problem of this peace process, is that we've had it for seven years, and
Israelis say it's not land for peace, it's land for nothing. And when
they hear Barak wants to give up 90 percent of the West Bank, allow in
thousands of refugees, share Jerusalem, this is stuff no Israeli has ever
heard in 33 years, and now that this is met with instead of yes, yes,
we'll end the conflict, but no, no, this isn't good enough, then I'm sorry,
then I just think that you've got a real breakdown in trust. And unless
you can restore the land-for-peace equation, not just saying I want 100
percent of the land and mumble on peace, but make sure that there's a
balance between the land part and the peace part, in my view we're going
nowhere.
MARGARET WARNER: So why -- and this is the question asked over and over again -- why has Arafat been apparently unable or unwilling to say anything publicly about any of the violence at any time throughout this two weeks?
MARGARET WARNER: All right. What if this summit fails to come up with a resolution, so far as of tonight, as of right now, there is nothing? DAVID MAKOVSKY: I shudder to think that we will descend into chaos, bloodshed. We will bury more people and be stuck with the same problem. And so, therefore, what's not important is not what's said in private rooms; what's important is that there be speeches of reconciliation said to the people, that if our land issues are met, we talk about a new era of cooperation. And my fear is we're not getting that leadership. He has raised expectations; Arafat has gotten boxed in by the very expectations he's created, and I think we're in for a bad run unless there's a real change of direction. MARGARET WARNER: All right. And what if this -- same question to you. What if this summit ends with nothing? KHALIL JAHSHAN: It would signal the end of the Madrid peace process which began in 1991. It would be unfortunate. This is the 76th attempt at peacemaking in the Middle East. And it would be sad to see it join the cemetery of 75 other attempts that proceeded it. MARGARET WARNER: But do you agree with David, that it could also really descend the region into chaos? KHALIL JAHSHAN: Definitely. There's no doubt about it. The past two-and-a-half weeks have been the most serious deterioration in the history of this conflict. I have never seen what this type of depth and magnitude and deterioration toward, again, a tribal, if you will, religious based conflict in 52 years. MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, Khalil Jahshan, David Makovsky, thanks both very much. |
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The burial
itself had the impact of heightening hysteria among the large crowd.
Afterward, the masked men with the high-powered rifles marched away
looking purposeful. People began to talk of the clashes with the Israelis
that would soon follow. And within half an hour of the funeral, the
confrontation had started at the road juncture near the Israeli military
encampment. Those active on the Palestinian side were not the masked
men. Barricades were pushed one way, then the other. At this stage,
the Israelis were responding only with stun grenades and the occasional
batten round. For an hour or more, the two sides stood their ground,
and their tactics didn't change. 
If it wasn't
so serious, you'd think there's some kind of set piece theatrical quality
about all this. Everyone knew there would be a standoff here between
2:00 and 4:00 this afternoon. Everyone knew that stones and rubber bullets
would be exchanged. Be that as it may, the summit and its talk of cease-fires
do seem a long way away. It was half an hour later, about 3:15, that
an element of danger and uncertainty crept in. Palestinian youths threw
Molotov cocktails at an Israeli jeep, and more stones hit their targets.
Then live bullets began to fly. Jeeps retreated in a hurry after gunfire
appeared to come from the Palestinian side. There was soon a response
from Israeli snipers, and a gunfight broke out across a piece of waste
ground. Across the occupied territories, dozens of injuries and two
deaths today, one of them on the Gaza Strip where these extraordinary
pictures were taken of an Israeli soldier at bay, showing how quickly
tables can be turned in this conflict. 
MARGARET
WARNER: After more than 12 hours of meetings today, leaders gathered
at an emergency Mideast summit in Egypt have not yet found a formula
to end the eruption of violence. For analysis we turn to Khalil Jahshan,
vice president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; and
David Makovsky, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy. He's the former executive editor of The Jerusalem Post,
and diplomatic correspondent for the Ha'aretz newspaper in Israel.
Welcome gentlemen. 
KHALIL JAHSHAN:
What the Palestinian side wants from this summit are basically four
specific demands and one general one. The specific demands include,
number one, an end to the Israeli military siege of the Palestinian
territories, particularly the use of heavy equipment, the live ammunition
and so on. Second, it wants the Israelis to withdraw the IDF, the Israeli
Defense Forces, away from Palestinian town and villages since their
presence basically continues to provoke Palestinian attacks. 
DAVID
MAKOVSKY: Well, first they need the halt to the violence. They don't
want to re-engage in the peace process unless they know that the violence
has been stopped. They're willing to take the heavy equipment away from
the flashpoints, but they want to do it only after they're assured the
violence has stopped. They agreed to it in Paris, and yet they had to
reintroduce it when the violence began again.
DAVID MAKOVSKY:
I think the feeling is, is that unless Arafat shows leadership and does...
we talked on this program two weeks ago, go on Palestine TV or Palestine
radio or other public forums and say, no more violence. If he doesn't
do that and take the leadership role, then none of this is going to
matter at all. And therefore, I think Israel's concern is that Arafat
in their view has been invisible, that when you allow... at least the
condemnation when holy places are desecrated or at least something to
say, I have the security police - I'm going to make a 100 percent effort
-- even if you don't get 100 percent results -- but either it's malice
or ineffectiveness. And in either outlook, it doesn't bode well for
the peace process.
KHALIL
JAHSHAN: Mainly because I think Arafat feels betrayed. Maybe he has
lost... the loss of confidence or trust that was referred to works both
ways. Arafat in a statement that I remember recently from him in an
inner circle basically stated, look, we sit with this man. It's like
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- we sit with Barak. We go visit with him at
home. We hear certain things. And when we come out of the room, we see
from him the total opposite. He talks peace, but he doesn't practice
it. So there... you know…they entered this whole confrontation
with a significant loss of trust, and they ended with a total loss of
trust. And this is where they are today. 