Mythologies Without End by Jerome Slater

Author:Jerome Slater
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Other accounts of Taba were less sanguine about the progress made on the issue. In his memoirs, Ben-Ami argues that Beilin was too optimistic,105 and Shlaim says that the gaps on the refugee issue “were reduced but left behind a good deal of unfinished business.”106 In light of the absence of transcripts or other written records, it is impossible to resolve the differences in these accounts. However, what is certain is that there is a wealth of evidence that even before Taba and certainly ever since, Arafat, Ahmed Qurei, Saeb Erekat, Mahmoud Abbas, and other high Palestinian officials have all repeatedly reassured the Israeli leaders that they have no intention of pressing Israel to admit large numbers of the refugees, let alone their descendants.

Jerusalem. Although both sides continued to have issues with giving concrete meaning to aspects of the Clinton proposals—“What is Jewish is Israeli, what is Arab is Palestinian”—they said they accepted the principle. The major sticking points continued to be over parts of the Old City and, especially, the Temple Mount/Haram. While Israel was willing to consider complex arrangements that split the differences, the Palestinians continued to reject any compromise that did not grant them sovereignty over the Haram. Even Sher’s report to Sharon stated, however, that in contrast to Arafat’s previous dismissal of Jewish religious claims and feelings, the Palestinians “showed understanding of the sensitivity of the issue for Israel, and a willingness to find a formulation that would balance these feelings with their national needs.”

What is the likelihood that the Jerusalem issue could have been resolved if the negotiations had continued? Shlaim is cautious: “On Jerusalem only slight progress was made. Neither side was happy with Clinton’s proposals, but the alternative each side proposed was even less appealing to the other side.”107 Beilin’s summation of the status of the Jerusalem issue when the conference ended was more upbeat: “The parties’ willingness to accept the Clinton Plan was emerging. . . . The matter of sovereignty over the holy places remained open, lingering somewhere between the Clinton proposal and internationalization.”108 As well, Kurtzer ends his summation of the issue on an even more positive note: “Both sides were close to accepting Clinton’s ideas regarding Palestinian sovereignty over Haram al-Sharif notwithstanding Palestinian and Israeli reservations.”109

At the close of the conference, the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators issued a joint communiqué: “The sides declare that they have never been closer to reaching an agreement and it is thus our shared belief that the remaining gaps could be bridged with the resumption of negotiations following the Israeli elections.”110

A few months later, in a joint New York Times op-ed, Yossi Beilin and Yasir Abed Rabbo of the Palestinian delegation wrote that “we can personally testify to have been extremely, even agonizingly close to reaching an agreement. . . . The main missing ingredient was quality time.”111 Similarly, Ahmed Qurei said that if Taba had continued in the same spirit for another two months, there would have been an agreement.112

But Barak ended the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.