The Middle East peace process may be unsinkable after all. Talks resume in Jerusalem on Sunday — talks that broke off at Camp David but maybe didn’t break down.
It’s an irony, maybe an obstacle, that the Palestinian Yasir Arafat, the bad guy at Camp David on President Clinton’s scorecard, went home to a hero’s welcome on the Gaza Strip. Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Barak, by contrast, looked magnanimous at Camp David but is under pressure in Israel. He had a broken Knesset coalition before Camp David, and has more explaining to do now about why he put a share of sovereignty over Jerusalem on the table, even if Arafat didn’t grab it.
The next move may be Arafat’s, well before his threat of a September 13 declaration of Palestinian statehood. Adamant against a half-loaf in Jerusalem, he’s nonetheless eager to talk… about something.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Hanan Ashrawi, spokesperson for the Palestinian delegation
Yoram Peri, former spokesperson for Yitzak Rabin and Professor of Politics at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.