Prepared by : Hadeel Wahdan
The future of Jerusalem looms as the potential deal-breaker in Tuesday's last-ditch summit between Israeli and Palestinian leaders at Camp David. But in preparations to confront that volatile issue, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is considering offering compromise concessions that would expand areas of the city already under Palestinian day-to-day control.
As the Tuesday start of the summit hosted by President Clinton approaches, both leaders must contend with dwindling internal support - Barak from his increasingly fragile coalition, and Arafat from ordinary Palestinians frustrated by long-stalled peace efforts.
Indeed, reaching agreement on all the outstanding issues, as the Clinton administration insists it aims to do strikes many as virtually impossible. That would mean resolving such major issues as the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state, the future of thousands of Palestinian refugees, as well as Israeli settlements on the West Bank and in Gaza. But the costs of not taking this step, Clinton says, will be more bloodshed - with both sides confronting the same problems later.
Publicly, the Palestinian leader is demanding transfer of virtually all of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem - more land than Barak is prepared to relinquish. And Barak intends to keep Jerusalem united and Israel's capital. Israel would annex settlements just outside Jerusalem. But Yasser Arafat has his eye on east Jerusalem as part of a Palestinian state, as well as its capital.
Less progress has been made on Jerusalem than on any other issue in the negotiations leading up to the summit, Israeli officials said. By contrast, the two sides have made considerable headway on the question of how much land Israel will turn over to Arafat for a state, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On refugees, officials said Barak is willing to consider permitting tens of thousands of Palestinians to settle in Israel if they have family members there.
The precedent is Israel's acceptance of 60,000 to 70,000 Palestinian Arabs in a program of reuniting families that was in force between Israel's founding in 1948 and the Mideast war of 1967, the officials said. But, the officials said, Barak would not accept the idea they have a legal right to return.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has been lowering expectations in advance of next week's Middle East peace summit at Camp David. He said there is only a 50:50 chance it will succeed - but at the same time Barak appears to be preparing the Israeli public for an agreement and for the possible compromises that would follow.
The Prime Minister has warned that the Camp David meeting on Tuesday will force Israelis to make painful decisions about their future. The Israeli delegation is heading to the summit meeting hoping to achieve an agreement in three areas.
The first would be a declaration that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has ended, or at least that both sides would accept each other's positions while leaving some of the thorniest issues like the status of Jerusalem open for negotiation at a later stage. Ehud Barak will also be seeking an agreement to separate the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, which will mean the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. And finally, the Israeli delegation will be seeking security arrangements that will strengthen Israel.
Israeli and Palestinian officials said they had already discussed the possibility of a second summit, in August. But Clinton is hoping for an overall agreement after a few days' work.
A meeting of the PLO Executive Committee later Friday evening applauded
Arafat for deciding to bring a delegation of 50 including Palestinian leaders, lawyers, and technical staff to the summit.
Among the delegates will be representatives from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a political faction that in the past rejected peace efforts with Israel. Other factions from the Palestinian opposition camp declined Arafat's invitation to accompany him to the summit. While only 12 members of the delegation will be permitted on the grounds of Camp David, the others will be nearby for consultation.
But there is no doubt that a shock-therapy summit would carry its own risks. In inviting the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to Camp David, President Clinton has calculated that the risks of a summit that fails - as this one distinctly could - are less than the risks of no summit at all.
Most presidential summits are carefully choreographed, with leaders gathering for a handshake and photo-op after signing a deal worked out by subordinates.
Clinton was embarrassed by a summitry break-down in April, when the late Syrian leader Hafez Assad refused his overtures for an Israeli-Syrian peace deal. The refusal essentially froze the peace process begun in Shepherdstown, last winter.