Summit Approaches Amidst Bitter Feelings

Oct. 15, 2000 -- On the eve of a summit aimed at achieving a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, both sides continue to cast blame on each other for recent violence but say they still have long-term hopes for a permanent peace.

President Clinton is leaving today to attend Monday’s summit at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, even as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright downplayed expectations — saying a cease-fire to the current violence is the goal.

”We don’t have illusions about the summit, as the president said yesterday, but I think it’s important that we have it,” she said on ABCNEWS’ This Week. “We think it’s very important to end this period of violence and get a period of calm.”

That goal is a far cry from recent optimistic assessments about peace in the Middle East that prevailed before more than two weeks of unrest killed more than 100 people, mostly Palestinians. Just a few weeks ago, many felt a final, permanent peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians was within reach.

Perhaps it is significant that the last thing President Clinton did before heading to the Middle East this time was go to church — appropriate, perhaps, given the enormity of the task he and his National Security team face in the days ahead.

Anger Continues

Although deaths from the unrest apparently have subsided in recent days, tempers still are hot.

Today, thousands of Palestinians were calling for continued fighting. Many mostly young protesters have been influenced over the years by militant factions like Hamas and Hezbollah — not by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

And the anger extends beyond Israel and the Palestinian territories. Throughout the Arab and Muslim world, thousands have taken to the streets.

In Beirut today, supporters of Hamas condemned Arafat for even thinking about peace with Israel.

Hezbollah guerrillas kept up pressure on the Israelis, claiming in Lebanon today that they have captured an Israeli army colonel.

In Cairo on Friday, demonstrators burst through the gates of a mosque and confronted riot police.

The anger even extends to foreign diplomats.

“We are also angry, not only the people in the streets or in the mosques, but we officials,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said. “We are all angry. We cannot accept what took place. … The Israeli actions indeed threaten the stability of the whole region.”

High-Stakes Summit

Some see possible impacts on Egypt and Jordan, which have signed peace treaties with Israel but where there is public unrest over Israeli actions.

Others say the goal of the summit, stabilizing unrest in the Middle East, has ramifications for the entire world.

“It is going to affect global economic growth,” said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was instrumental in organizing the summit. “Oil prices have hit their highest level in 10 years. It’s going to affect all countries, rich and poor.”

But even if the violence subsides, Israelis and Palestinians will still have to deal with an open wound — a scar so long and so deep from these last two weeks, it may be years before there is a real effort at talking peace again.

“Both sides have almost stepped back six years in terms of their statements and attitudes,” says Anthony Cordesman, an ABCNEWS analyst.

‘He Initiated It’

The two sides continue to sling blame at one another for the unrest.

“By launching this attack, [Arafat] sends a wave of destabilization throughout the region,” said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on This Week. “He launched it; he initiated it.”

Nevertheless, he says he hopes the two sides eventually can return to the peace table.

“We will never lose hope for making peace with our Palestinian neighbors,” Barak said. “They are here forever, and we have to make peace with the same people who are demonstrating right now against us.”

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he too hopes for permanent peace, but accused Barak of stoking the current violence by allowing conservative Israeli politician Ariel Sharon to visit Jerusalem’s Temple Mount — site of Jewish and Muslim holy sites.

Palestinian leaders say they pleaded personally for Barak to stop Sharon’s visit, and that the audacity of the visit sparked the recent violence.

Barak said today that Palestinian security officials cleared the visit by Sharon, so long as he agreed to stay out of the Muslim holy areas, which he did.

Profiting From Violence?

Many Israelis accuse the Palestinians of using the visit as an excuse to launch the violence for political purposes — to create sympathy for their cause.

Erekat said the violence may also serve Israeli political ends.

“I believe that Mr. Barak is trying to teach us a lesson, and telling us, ‘Listen, this is the tip of the iceberg of what you may see should you declare your state, and this is the language you understand,’” Erekat said on This Week.

“Mr. Barak, you’re totally wrong,” Erekat added. “If he thinks that with the language of guns and missiles and tanks he can silence the Palestinians, the only thing he’s succeeded to do is to silence people like me, Palestinian moderates. He’s strengthening Palestinian extremists. He’s strengthening Israeli extremists.”

”We are going to Sharm el-Sheikh simply because we want to stop this war against us,” Erekat said.

ABCNEWS’ Sheila MacVicar, Martha Raddatz and Sam Donaldson contributed to this report.