Both sides thought the negotiations might yet bear fruit, even though they have been sidetracked by Israel’s controversial deportation of about 400 Palestinian fundamentalists from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Yossi Beilin, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, called the Arab-Israeli dispute “the most soluble conflict in the world.” But he added: “We have to admit that without the involvement of the American administration, there will not be peace in the Middle East.” Even if the Clinton administration is willing to invest in a major peace effort, is Christopher too deferential, too much the Los Angeles lawyer, to wrestle the parties into a deal? “I like cold fish,” said Beilin. “He can be an honest broker-that’s very important.”
As deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, Christopher dealt with the Middle East. But after years away from the game, he did not know some of the key players, and he needed to relearn the language of Mideast diplomacy. The night before he left Washington, he met with Saudi Arabia’s ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. Bandar offered to help push the peace process. “But you must get us involved early,” a source quoted him as saying. “Once something’s done, it’s too late for us to help you sell it.” That was an indirect way of telling Christopher that he’d made a mistake when he cut a deal with Israel last month on the deportees. Washington got Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to say that 101 of the Palestinians could go home, and the rest would be allowed back by the end of this year. But Christopher consulted only with Egypt and was surprised when Saudi Arabia, Syria and others failed to endorse the deal.
“It was a failure of tactics and marketing,” said a senior Arab diplomat. “Baker would have involved us from the outset. We would have been singing from the same sheet of music.” Now Christopher was gambling that Israel’s partial concession would be enough to get the Palestinian delegation, and the Arab governments, back to the negotiating table. Bandar’s polite message: don’t take the Arabs for granted. “What bothers us is not the substance of the [Israeli offer], though of course it is not enough,” said another Arab diplomat. “What bothers us is that Secretary Christopher seemed too passive, too accepting of the limitations set by the Israelis, too quick to accept the Israelis’ analysis of what the Palestinians would do.”
Christopher missed Bandar’s signal, his aides said later; he thought it was a promise of future help only, rather than a complaint about past U.S. performance. Before they left Washington, State Department officials insisted that Israel should not be pushed to make farther concessions to Hamas, the militant Muslim group to which many of the deportees allegedly belong. “The Arabs who want to stay focused on the deportee issue simply play into Hamas’s hands,” said a senior official. “It’s time for them to move on to the real issue, which is negotiating a lasting peace.”
The Arabs told Christopher that they couldn’t move on. Most of them felt little sympathy for the Islamic militants, who pose more of a threat to Arab governments than to Israel. But the Arabs could not appear to condone deportation, or Israel’s refusal to comply fully with a United Nations resolution ordering the return of the deportees. “We still need a ladder to get down from this tree we’re in,” said Saeb Erekat, the deputy head of the Palestinian delegation.
The Arabs like Christopher personally. “He is very sharp,” said one official who met with him during the trip. “He responded to all the important points-and only the important points.” But Arabs worry that a Democratic administration will be sympathetic to Israel and that Christopher will not win the trust of hard-nosed leaders like Syrian President Hafez Assad. “Assad knew that when Baker said something would happen, it would happen,” says an Arab diplomat. Israelis worry that Christopher will be pushed around by tough Arab leaders-like Assad. “If Assad concludes that Christopher is a weak reed, that is trouble for all of us,” says an Israeli diplomat.
U.S. officials insist the administration wants to make headway. “The president is counting on Christopher to keep him out of trouble internationally,” says a Clinton adviser. “Brokering peace in the Middle East is one way he can do that.” But in the Mideast, personal relationships are everything. “We will be asking the parties to take some significant risks to get this process going forward,” says a Christopher aide. “And they won’t do that unless they feel Christopher is tough enough to deliver.” At Egypt’s suggestion, Christopher will urge the Israelis to accelerate the repatriation of the deportees. The vigor and success with which he presses the case will tell both sides a lot about their future.
