Madam Secretary by Madeleine Albright

Author:Madeleine Albright
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062265470
Publisher: HarperCollins

NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUED WITH little progress through the end of 1997. By the coming of the new year, we had concluded that neither side was likely to propose a package acceptable to the other. We had made gains on questions such as a Palestinian airport and safe passage for Palestinians between cities, but the issue of further Israeli troop withdrawals was at an impasse. The decisions we were asking the parties to make were extraordinarily difficult, but also urgent, so we decided to present our own proposals to Netanyahu and Arafat separately, hoping they would consent to a trilateral meeting with the President at which an agreement could be announced.

On January 19, 1998, Netanyahu arrived in Washington, where he spoke at an event for evangelical Christians. Among his hosts was the Reverend Jerry Falwell, who was then promoting a ridiculous video purporting to implicate President Clinton in drug dealing and murder. Not surprisingly, the media portrayed Netanyahu’s participation in the event as a direct slap at the President.

We met in the Oval Office the next day. We had nothing to gain from a spat with Netanyahu, so the President began by suggesting they “put the issue of snubs and slights behind us. We have to have a positive attitude.” It quickly became clear, however, that Netanyahu was not ready to agree to our proposals, nor was he going to stick around for any three-way meeting. Instead he urged us to accept a plan for permanent security zones in the West Bank and Gaza in return for Israeli withdrawals. We couldn’t do this, because the zones involved final status issues and so had to be dealt with in permanent status talks. Over and over again, Netanyahu stressed the difficult political situation he faced at home, saying that his cabinet wouldn’t allow him to be more flexible.

Prior to the session in the Oval Office, I had had breakfast with Netanyahu at the Mayflower Hotel. After the White House meeting, I met with the prime minister again in his tenth-floor suite, then returned to the White House to brief the press, before going back to the Mayflower. At 9:40 P.M. we all returned to the White House to meet once more with the President; we stayed until after midnight. It was hard and intense work, though I did wonder how so many people who were so smart could talk so much without saying anything new.

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