Ehud Barak could contemplate self-government by the Palestinians of East Jerusalem, but he would not give up Israel\’s sovereignty in a formally undivided city, and he dug in his heels at the suggestion that the Old City be put under international control.
We want to stand on our own feet. Once we\’ve made peace with the neighbors, we hope, as that nice Yossi Beilin said, we shan\’t need your handouts any more.
As Prime Minister Ehud Barak engages this week in Middle East summitry, there is one issue on which he can afford to make the fewest concessions: Jerusalem.
The Camp David summit looks like the boldest gamble by an Israeli leader since the founding father, David Ben-Gurion, declared the Jewish state in May 1948, to the rumble of invading Arab guns and the chattering teeth of his own querulous associates. Ehud Barak flew to the United States this week determined to make peace with the Palestinians, but with his coalition government and parliamentary support in tatters.
Hours before Albright arrived Tuesday, Arafat made it clear that he would make no new concessions in the talks aimed at reaching a final peace accord. The preceding day, he repeatedly said there is no point to holding the summit now.
Israel came close to witnessing the collapse of a government this week. The crisis came after months of fighting between two of Prime Minister Ehud Barak\’s coalition partners, the fervently Orthodox Shas Party and the secular Meretz Party.
The coincidence could hardly have been lost on Ehud Barak: As President Hafez Assad was laid to rest in Syria, Israel\’s Shas Party appeared to lay the premier\’s \”peace coalition\” to rest.The fervently Orthodox party\’s Council of Sages, headed by spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, sounded what could be the first notes of the prime minister\’s coalition\’s death knell Tuesday. The council ordered Shas ministers to hand in their resignations at Sunday\’s Cabinet meeting.
The first report on Assad\’s death caught me by surprise. It was from Eric Silver, our Jerusalem correspondent (see page 20), and it recounted his interview with the former chief rabbi of Syria, Avraham Hamra, who now lives in Israel.
Caution was the prevailing sentiment as U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright attempted this week to nudge Israel and the Palestinians closer to a final peace agreement.
The Los Angeles Ulpan is one of the nation\’s oldest Israel trips geared to teenagers.
