Where Clinton appears
346 total
…a time when there was not a church, much less a mosque, in sight. 377 / BARAK / 92 Still, in my meetings with Clinton, I assured him I was not giving up altogether on the prospects for peace. Not only did I feel that would be wrong, as long...
…b, European and world capitals, pleading that he had been the “victim” of summit chicanery in which President Clinton and I had presented him with a deal no self-respecting Palestinian could accept. He was also campaigning for international...
…minimum, a framework agreement. In that sense, it is true the summit had failed. But when I’d urged President Clinton to convene it, I made the argument that if genuine peace was ever going to be possible, we at least had to know whether Ar...
…storic achievement he’d passed up, he would know where to find me. But until and unless that happened, I told Clinton that I assumed my “pocket” concessions would now be firmly back in his pocket. And while we couldn’t erase them from memor...
…’t fully hit me how draining our efforts had been until the morning that the summit collapsed, when President Clinton called me to come talk to him in the living room at Laurel Lodge. When I arrived, Madeleine was already there, sitting on...
…himself there never was a Jewish temple in Jerusalem. When I heard about that remark, I was less shocked than Clinton. It struck me as just another way Arafat had of conveying his bottom lines. It was a bit like stories he liked to tell abo...
t Arafat once more, in a joint session with President Clinton, but only for closing statements. The President and I spoke as much in sorrow and frustration as anger. Both of us said we thought an historic agreement had been within our grasp...
…n is simple: he needs to answer whether he views the President’s proposal as a basis for going forward.” When Clinton returned, he promptly got back down to business: making one last push to see whether a peace deal was possible. He phoned...
…ood conscience help her out in her efforts to find at least some, informal, way of moving the summit along in Clinton’s absence. If Arafat had failed to show even a scintilla of movement with the President in the room, I knew there was no w...
…ception of the talks on the holy sites, nothing would happen until he accepted the concessions that President Clinton and I had delivered as at least a basis for further negotiations. As a result, Arafat’s team now set about happily asking...
…ring our absolute minimum need in Jerusalem: sovereignty over the Temple Mount. I didn’t say yes. Still, with Clinton’s words of advice still on my mind, I said that I’d think it over. When I met the rest of the Israeli team, almost all of...
…fter the summit, it was important not to make things worse. A negotiating process had to be kept alive. Then, Clinton sat down with me. He delivered a similar message, but with even greater feeling. “You’re smarter than I am,” he joked. “Yo...
…y our proposals and showing a willingness to find common ground would we have any hope of success. No recess, Clinton said. He needed a straight answer. Again, not full acceptance necessarily, but agreement to treat the proposals as a basis...
… also agreed to consider Palestinian sovereignty over both the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City. Clinton, arching his eyebrows and smiling, said what I’d offered was a package of genuine concessions. It was more than he had exp...
…f no’s from Arafat. But I felt I couldn’t give up. Much as I’d been resisting it, I believed I needed to give Clinton my true bottom lines, even 366 / BARAK / 81 with Arafat still mute and unresponsive. That was the only way we could know w...
…nian sovereignty over all of East Jerusalem, including the Old City and the holy sites. For a few hours after Clinton’s fruitless meeting with Arafat, Dennis and the American team engaged in a rescue effort, adding another carrot. They incl...
…r concessions with no sign of reciprocity. But I did regret that it had left the Americans so frustrated, and Clinton so angry. He had invested not just huge amounts of time and brainpower, but political capital, in the search for peace. He...
tinian sovereignty. “You keep us, and Arafat, waiting for 13 hours,” Clinton fumed, his face nearly scarlet. “And you want me to present something less than you’ve already offered.” He said he wouldn’t do it. “This is not real. It’s not ser...
…ummit talks for 30 years. Then, explicitly, we proposed a question to Arafat to confirm my understanding with Clinton that the “right of return” would apply not to Israel proper, but to a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza. Finally...
…greement, if indeed it was possible, and our readiness to discuss new proposals on Jerusalem. When I left for Clinton’s cabin at about 1:00 am on Wednesday, I had no idea I was about to enter the most difficult meeting – and the only real f...
