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Israeli FM Denies Gaps Narrowing at Camp David Talks
Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy Sunday denied earlier optimistic reports about Camp David Talks, saying Israeli and Palestinian negotiators remain far from closing their gaps.
After meeting with visiting Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan, Levy said "all the statements that were made before to the effect that they were getting closer...were baseless."
Earlier media reports, which quoted Palestinian sources close to the talks, said there is a upbeat mood among Palestinian negotiating team and a final Israeli-Palestinian peace accord could be reached within a few days due to substantial progress on all the subjects.
The three-way summit at Camp David, attended by U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, has entered into its sixth day Sunday.
The talks were designated to resolve all thorny issues between Israel and the Palestinians, such as the fate of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements, Palestinian refugees, borders, security and water. U.S. media blackout during the talks has made all kinds of rumors and speculations run high.
Levy, who had a telephone contact with Barak during the weekend, said Sunday afternoon that the failure to make progress should be blamed on the Palestinians, who he said rejected all Israeli proposals.
"I am worrying about the situation of the talks. If the Palestinians do not realize the need to compromise on their side as well, then the agreement will be far off," he said.
Levy, who acted as prime minister as Barak is abroad, opposes the summit and refused to attend it.
But Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, who argued for the summit plan from the very beginning, Sunday also issued pessimistic remarks about the talks.
"It is hard at this stage to give some kind of impression of optimism more than yesterday or the day before yesterday because there has not been a breakthrough," Beilin told Israel's Army Radio.
Beilin, the most capable assistant to Barak, said that it would take "more than a few days" to solve the key points of conflict between the two sides.
Meanwhile, Israeli Minister in Prime Minister's Office Haim Ramon, another Barak's confidant in his cabinet, denied that Israel had made compromises regarding Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. The fate of Jerusalem is the most intractable and sensitive issue on the negotiation table as Israel regards it as "eternal and undivided capital," while the Palestinians want to see the eastern part of the city, which Israel captured during the 1967 Mideast war, as the capital of their own future state.
Some media reports said at the weekend that Israeli delegation had proposed to grant municipal autonomy to Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
However, Ramon reaffirmed to Israel Radio that "there is a solid obligation for Jerusalem to stay united under Israeli sovereignty, it's one of the red lines with which the prime minister went to Camp David and I'm convinced that this red line won't be crossed."
In a related development, leaders of seven Israeli opposition parties convened in the Jerusalem municipality Sunday afternoon, discussing the Jerusalem issue.
In a joint statement released at the end of the so-called Jerusalem Coalition meeting, the parties said "Prime Minister Ehud Barak is breaking his promise not to divide Jerusalem."
The parties also discussed concerted actions regarding the vote of two no-confidence motions against Barak, which will be put in debate in the Knesset (parliament) on Monday.
These motions are unprecedented as the opposition usually refrain from submitting no-confidence motions when a prime minister is abroad for national business.
Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu faction, said that he believed the motions will garner the law-required 61 votes in the 120-member parliament to topple the Barak government.
In addition, the right-wing parties all attended a demonstration against the Camp David talks, which was held at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv Sunday night.
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