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US Peace Proposals Draw Mixed Reactions From Israelis
The peace proposals put forward by US outgoing President Bill Clinton during the five-day negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials in Washington have drawn mixed reactions from Israeli politicians.
Caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak is to meet ministers of his peace cabinet to discuss the proposals on Monday which reportedly suggest Israeli concessions on sovereignty over Jerusalem in exchange for limited return of Palestinians refugees.
The left-wing Meretz Party leader Yossi Sarid believed that Israel must accept the proposals with a few adjustments. Israel cannot agree to a full right of return of Palestinians because that would mean national suicide, he said.
On the issue of Jerusalem, the former education minister who quit the coalition government in June said that international recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel would be preferable to a pseudo-sovereignty over the contested holy site in East Jerusalem, known as Temple Mount to Jews and al-Haram al- Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, to Muslims.
The holy area is the site of Judaism's biblical temples and the remnant Wailing Wall today is the holiest shrine for Jews. The site is also housing the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third holiest shrine.
Sovereignty over the site is the most sensitive issue in the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, which aborted the July Camp David negotiations.
Justice Minister Yossi Beilin said this is the moment of truth for Israelis and the Palestinians. Beilin, who is an architect of the 1993 Oslo peace accords said that Israel cannot or will not accept the American proposals entirely, but they can be the basis for an agreement.
Israel Radio Monday quoted senior diplomatic sources as expressing cautious optimism on the possibility that Palestinian National Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat would accept those proposals.
They said it would be difficult for Arafat to strike any kind of agreement with Israel due to internal problems.
The radio report also quoted a government source close to the peace negotiations and the details of the American proposals as saying that they were much like the Rogers plan devised 32 years ago when the Americans suggest a return to 1967 border with minor adjustments.
The Israelis and Palestinians conducted five days of inconclusive peace talks in Washington and returned home Sunday to brief their leaders on the outcome of the negotiations and the US peace plan. Both sides must respond to the US proposals by Wednesday.
The Israelis and Palestinians have been trying to work out a comprehensive deal over the final status issues such as the status of Jerusalem, border, water resources, the future of Jewish settlers and Palestinian refugees before Clinton leaves office on January 20.
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