Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Author:Hillary Rodham Clinton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

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Over the following weeks we launched a full-court press to persuade Bibi to reconsider extending the freeze. Much of the action played out in New York, where everyone had gathered once again for the UN General Assembly. The year before, President Obama had hosted the first direct meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas. Now we were fighting to forestall total collapse of the negotiations. There were long nights at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, strategizing with President Obama and our team and then working with the Israelis, the Palestinians, and the Arabs to try to find a solution. I met with Abbas twice, had a private meeting with Ehud Barak, had breakfast with a group of Arab Foreign Ministers, and spoke with Bibi by phone, each time making the case that walking away from the talks, settlement freeze or no, would only set back the aspirations of the Palestinian people.

In his speech to the General Assembly, President Obama called for the moratorium to be extended, and he urged both sides to stay at the table and keep talking: “Now is the time for the parties to help each other overcome this obstacle. Now is the time to build the trust—and provide the time—for substantial progress to be made. Now is the time for this opportunity to be seized, so that it does not slip away.”

After the initial stonewalling, it appeared that Netanyahu was willing to discuss the idea of an extension, but only if we met an ever-expanding list of demands that included providing new state-of-the-art fighter planes. For his part, Abbas insisted that Israel had to “choose between peace and the continuation of settlements.”

On the night before the deadline, I reminded Ehud Barak that “the collapse of the moratorium would be a disaster for Israel and the United States.” Also for the Palestinians, he replied. Barak did everything he could to help me work out a compromise, but he was never able to bring Netanyahu or the rest of the Israeli Cabinet along.

The deadline came and went. Direct negotiations were over, for now. But my work wasn’t. I thought it was crucial that we not allow the collapse of talks to lead to a collapse of public confidence—or to violence, as had happened in the past. Over the final months of 2010, I threw myself into efforts to keep both sides from doing anything provocative and to explore whether we could close some of the gaps revealed in our negotiating sessions through proximity talks and creative diplomatic proposals. “I’m increasingly worried about the way ahead,” I told Netanyahu in a call in early October. “We’re trying very hard to keep things on track and avoid any precipitous collapse. You know how disappointed we are we couldn’t avoid an end to the moratorium.” I urged him to show restraint when approving new construction or talking about future plans. Reckless talk would only inflame a tense situation. Bibi promised to be judicious, but warned me against allowing the Palestinians to “play brinksmanship.

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