Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1998, pages 12-14

After the Wye Memorandum, Whither Land-for-Peace?—Five Views

Twenty Years Late: From Camp David to Wye

By Eugene Bird

The Wye River Conference was supposed to run four days, It ran nine and nearly ended in a walk-out by the Israelis. It was high drama and perhaps more satisfying to the American organizers than to either of the parties, Israel’s Likud government and the Palestine Authority. It came just 20 years after Camp David.

The Wye memorandum really establishes a timeline for implementation of the Oslo II accord on redeployment, setting a new deadline of 12 weeks before ending the interim period and going on to the final status issues. It deepens U.S. involvement in the Israel-Palestine dispute. It could be described as an interim agreement about an interim agreement.

In fact, even after nine days of negotiations, and some two years of discussion, there still are no maps and no real idea of where the percentage redeployments are to take place. And there is no talk of redeployment to “specified military cantonments” which was the original Oslo idea. The redeployments are simply being used to hold onto more land, and have little to do with security concerns.

Press Containment

The video cameras, the “pencils,” and the still cameras were supposedly off-limits to the delegates, but not to their spokespersons, particularly from the Israeli side. Jamie Rubin, the Department of State spokesperson, rotated back and forth between the Wye River site of the talks and the Chesapeake College auditorium facility where the press was held, more or less captive, most of the nine days of the talks.

“I guess we were reasonably successful in preventing leaks,” Rubin said on the fifth day, just before two separate Israeli official spokesmen suddenly appeared and gave briefings on the lawns of the college, claiming that they were only responding to what the Palestinians were doing.

Israel Rafaelovich, a free-lance Israeli journalist with State Department press credentials, summarized the Wye agreement this way: “It turned out to be more complex than even Bibi Netanytahu expected. This was a case of American pragmatism turning out to be more complicated and sophisticated than the Israeli rug traders had expected. Clinton overwhelmed them with details and peace agreement gambits. That was what was tough about it for the prime minister.”

The Three Phases

The nine days at Wye River broke down into three phases. At the opening President Clinton tried to minimize American involvement in the details outside the security area. The second phase was to let the parties try to reach agreement with minimal American involvement. The last phase was bringing in both President Clinton to twist arms and King Hussein of Jordan to inspire the leaders with an emotional speech.

The Palestinians and Israelis met in four committees, dealing with security, border crossings, redeployment, and the airport and port. Although the Americans attempted to keep the parties moving forward by themselves, by the end of the second day it was apparent it was not working. The chemistry was still bad and the flexibility on each side very limited, according to one Palestinian who observed the process.

The U.S. then tried shuttling by members of the peace team, but still with minimal American involvement in the substance. Very little was put down on paper with the exception of the security committee. The principals, Yasser Arafat and Binyamin Netanytahu, had not met since the second day of the conference.

By the fifth day it was apparent that even the intervention of the president on a “tag-team” with the secretary of state, each going one-on-one with the two leaders, was not moving the conference forward. By the sixth day the parties were not moving forward at all.

First Crisis

On Tuesday, the Israelis broke the agreement on press silence by sending spokesman Aviv Bushinsky and Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold, a former American citizen, to announce they were stopping all talks except on security. Wednesday the Israelis threatened to leave the conference altogether. Their packed bags were set out on the lawn, and the Israeli press corps were told to ready themselves for departure at 2 a.m. Thursday.

Ignoring a Bluff

The American side never took the threat seriously and in fact Defense Minister Mordechai, who was working on the security issue exclusively, was reported to have told his prime minister that he would not leave even if Netanyahu did. The prime minister backed down late Wednesday evening, issuing a statement that lamely claimed “progress” had been made and the Israeli delegation would stay.

The Americans responded that they would circulate a memorandum summarizing agreed positions. But the American draft was delayed for unknown reasons, and was not completed until Thursday morning, when it became the basis for negotiations by the president with the principals and their advisers.

The Last 30 Hours

When President Clinton returned early on Thursday, the seventh day of the Wye Conference, after being absent for almost two days the real bargaining began. But it still took almost 23 hours before the memorandum was ready for signature.

Then came the second Israeli bombshell. Israeli Army radio reported that the prime minister would be returning with the freed spy Jonathan Pollard. At Wye, reporters were writing speculative stories that had the president forced to back down because a CIA official had threatened to resign if he freed Pollard. President Clinton apparently was as astonished as everyone else at the Israeli claim that there was an agreement to free Pollard, especially after it was announced on Israeli radio, apparently a Netanyahu tactic to put pressure on the president.

On the other hand Netanyahu may have misread the president, for the prime minister had raised the subject of Pollard several times, both before and at Wye, according to American spokesmen, but he never was promised anything on the subject.

The Pollard Crisis

That crisis lasted six hours and ended with the president’s agreement early Friday afternoon to “review” the Pollard case. Sources indicated that the review is not likely to result in any change.

Throughout the Wye conference, several Israeli organizations had sent over protesters to demonstrate, as did at least one American organization supporting the conference.

The Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation, flew in Likud Knesset member Meir Shitreet, who was the lone Likud party member to have voted for the original Oslo accord. Shitreet held an impromptu press conference to call on Arafat to agree to a two-year deferral of his pledge to proclaim an independent Palestinian state and to demand that such a deferral be incorporated in side letters between the Americans and each of the parties. Shitreet’s requests were ignored.

Wye Atmospherics

“Please do not refer to this as the Wye Plantation. That is an affront to African Americans,” one State Department handler said to the press pool en route to a photo-op with the president. “It is the Wye River Conference Center.”

In fact, it was the Wye Plantation, home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence. And even Prime Minister Netanyahu slipped up and used the term “Plantation” during a press conference at the White House.

The 20 delegates from each side, the 30 Americans involved in actual discussions in the four committees, and the more than 250 television and print press people did not overwhelm the facilities at the local community college, but the Wye Conference Center was cramped at times.

Israeli Latecomers

Late arrivals at Wye were Ariel Sharon, minister of foreign affairs, called “Mr. Security” by some of the Israeli press; Minister of Immigration Natan Sharansky, the most significant leader outside of Likud in the present coalition; and Yitzhak Mordechai, the minister of defense and the Israeli leader closest to American officials. They all came late to the party, but they got there in time for the final stamp of approval, demonstrating the power, in spite of all his missteps, of Netanytahu.

Agreement Provisions

The critical Gaza Port project, designed to free up Palestinian exports, was left to be studied, but with a decision due within 60 days.

A welcome surprise was the promise to set up not one but two “safe passages” for Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza.

On this point, M.K. Shitreet said that such a passage now would be difficult and expensive to create, and there was no assurance that such a passage would be needed in final status. Israel does not appear to want to give the Palestinians normal lives.

On the other hand, Palestinian Minister of Planning Nabil Shaath noted a few months ago that the Israelis gave him a special license to pass through their checkpoints, but refused to let his wife ride across Israel to visit her family in Nablus, even when Shaath was along in the car. Harassment is a daily routine for Palestinians now and this is not likely to change significantly.

The busiest committee operating at Wye was the security committee, which Clinton turned over entirely to the CIA. They had worked out a security monitoring system months earlier, but Netanyahu had refused it. At Wye new and highly intrusive arrangements to be carried out by the Palestinian police and monitored by the CIA were worked out.

Bringing the CIA into the job of monitoring incidents and making a judgment on who provoked whom and what violence was done to the agreements opens a whole new perspective. The Israelis are not likely to be any happier with the CIA in that role than they have been with the U.N.

Police Torture

Both Israel and the Palestinians use what amounts to torture methods to seek out terrorists. With the CIA now monitoring such efforts, will they condemn or condone such actions?

There are at present four Americans of Palestinian origin in jails run by the Palestinian Authority. There are 25 American citizens in Israeli jails. And both sets of Americans have alleged they were tortured into confessing to things they did not do. Some of the crimes and sentences will also be novel for American monitors. Throwing a stone at an Israeli car while wearing a mask earns many months or years in prison.

The Wye talks did not dwell on costs. “We will first get to an agreement,” said presidential spokesperson Jim Lockhart. Whatever it may cost, the administration will certainly get the support of Congress, and the usual ratio of 90 percent payout to Israel and 10 percent to the Palestinians will prevail.

The Wye Conference was not a smooth diplomatic exercise, but in the end, President Clinton got pretty much what he wanted. After two years of delay by Netanyahu, he has signed documents to implement the Oslo accords he has deplored.

“Arafat’s announcement that he would declare a Palestinian state next May is what triggered the prime minister to agree to come to Wye,” said a Palestinian correspondent for the Arab News Network. “Both the Americans and the Israelis were shocked into this one.” That same correspondent asked President Arafat at the White House during the opening of the Wye conference ceremonies whether the Palestinians would maintain their freedom to announce a state.

“Of course,” Arafat replied, and at the end of nine days he had done so.

Third Redeployment?

Another major problem, the third redeployment as promised by Netanyahu himself during the negotiations two years ago over Hebron, was simply deferred at the Wye conference, with vague promises that during the final status talks consideration would be given to a third further deployment.

Evaluation of who won what at Wye will await implementation. If the Israelis carry out an honest redeployment that is “substantial and convincing,” as called for by the United States, and really implement the airport and industrial zone and the safe passage crossings as promised at Wye, then it could lead to a marginally better life for the Palestinians. The peace process would sputter on.

But past Israeli performance raises legitimate doubts that they will keep their Wye promises. That will mean that as the peace process drags on, intolerably high costs to the American taxpayer will continue to escalate far into the 21st century. And that would be a damned shame for everyone concerned.