WASHINGTON — The Wye Plantation summit — punctuated by the terrorist attack in Beersheva and the dramatic intervention of an ailing King Hussein — represented a major roll of the dice for the Clinton administration and a significant shift in U.S. tactics.
President Clinton’s extraordinary participation in this week’s risky negotiations — he even postponed a two-day fund-raising swing through California for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) — took up at least 55 hours of his time.
His efforts surprised many observers who thought that anything less than a signed agreement would damage Clinton’s already weakened credibility as a world leader.
The ups and downs of the summit were so wild, however, that at the Bulletin’s presstime Wednesday evening the participants were either about to announce a White House signing or about to leave the country empty-handed.
Clinton’s direct involvement — as well as a fear of major repercussions for both Palestinians and Israelis if the president’s investment did not pay off — was a primary factor in the extension of the talks, which started Thursday of last week and were originally expected to end Monday.
As the talks reached a critical stage Wednesday, Israel accused the United States of retreating from previous understandings on securityissues. But U.S. officials dismissed as posturing Israeli threats to walk out of the summit Wednesday night.
Gaps remained on key issues at presstime, including a proposed third Israeli redeployment, a “time out” on settlements demanded by the Palestinians, and a proposed meeting of the Palestinian National Council to formally repudiate anti-Israel clauses in its charter.
For the White House, the overriding concern is that catastrophe would loom if the interim accords expire May 4 without progress, U.S. officials said.
That’s when Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat plans to unilaterally declare statehood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said such a move would free his hand to annex West Bank territory, a move that would certainly unleash more violence.
In his efforts to avoid such a catastrophe, Clinton pulled out all the stops.
He stationed Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the Maryland plantation. He also brought Vice President Al Gore to the meetings, and he convinced Jordan’s King Hussein to literally get off his sick bed in Minnesota, where he has been undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, and join the talks.
By Wednesday, Clinton had engaged in hours of bilateral and trilateral talks, including an unusual 75 minute one-on-one meeting with the new Israeli foreign minister, Ariel Sharon. On Tuesday, Clinton was joined by Hussein in a marathon 13-hour session for what an administration spokesman termed “end game” negotiations. Clinton stayed up until 3 a.m. Wednesday to help push the talks ahead.
Chief among the obstacles, however, were Israel’s deep concerns about security and the absence of trust between the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
A Palestinian terrorist attack Monday that left 66 wounded at a bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheva had prompted Israel to once again press the Palestinian Authority to commit to specific steps against terrorism.
The attack sent negotiators at Wye scrambling.
Netanyahu broke a media blackout to announce that he would restrict the talks exclusively to Palestinian security guarantees. U.S. officials convinced Netanyahu and Arafat to sign off on a joint statement condemning terror and pledging to continue the peace process.
By Monday night, however, the full range of issues was once again back on the negotiating table.
Still, an atmosphere of distrust prevailed. Most public was Sharon’s refusal to shake Arafat’s hand. Sharon, who won’t change his belief that Arafat is a terrorist with blood on his hands, ignored Arafat when the Palestinian leader stood and saluted him at their first encounter at the talks.
The Wye talks centered around a U.S.-proposed plan for a phased 13 percent Israeli redeployment from the West Bank in exchange for concrete Palestinian security guarantees.
The deal would commit the sides to begin final-status talks on the critical questions of Palestinian statehood, settlements and Jerusalem. Before this week’s summit, U.S. officials had received informal Palestinian assurances that ongoing final-status talks would avert a declaration of statehood.
U.S. officials also were working to conclude an agreement on numerous outstanding issues, including the opening of a Palestinian airport, a Gaza industrial zone, release of Palestinian prisoners and safe-passage routes from the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip to areas under their control in the West Bank.
Israel, which had agreed in principle to the 13 percent redeployment figure, was focusing its demands almost exclusively on Palestinian fulfillment of previous promises, including a crackdown on Hamas, confiscation of illegal weapons and cutbacks of their police force to limits set forth in previous Israeli-Palestinian accords. Israel also demanded that the Palestinians extradite terrorist suspects to Israel and amend their covenant, which calls for the destruction of Israel.
The CIA was expected to play a critical role in the monitoring of the security package, and would field complaints from both sides. CIA Director George Tenet attended most of the security-oriented talks at the summit.
A codified role for the CIA would mark a new shift of power in the region where until now agreements have focused on direct Israeli-Palestinian security committees without outside mediation.
In previous agreements, Israel had committed to another redeployment, in addition to the 13 percent currently under discussion. The Palestinians are demanding another sizeable chunk of West Bank territory. The United States also wants firm Israeli commitments to confine the expansion of West Bank settlements.
On the financial side, Israel is said to have asked for some $500 million to finance the redeployment of its forces and the construction of West Bank bypass roads. The Palestinian Authority is also making new financial demands. Their international-aid package, agreed to after the initial Oslo peace accord signing in 1993, is set to expire.
While details of the elusive deal remained secret under a media blackout, sources said that by late Tuesday the United States had drafted numerous side letters to the Israelis and Palestinians detailing commitments that each side had made to Clinton. Confidential appendices to a draft of an agreement had already been written before the talks began last week.
Even if the two sides reached an agreement for a White House signing ceremony, the Wye summit did not provide the boost of good will that the American hosts hoped would emerge from the bucolic setting on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Matthew Dorf is a Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporter. James Besser is a Washington correspondent for Jewish newspapers.